Preston Duron Wins Lodge Championship Series Main Event

The 2023 Lodge Championship Series $3,000 no-limit hold’em main event attracted a field of 776 entries, surpassing the $2 million guarantee to create a final prize pool of $2,134,000. After six days of tournament action, the largest chunk of that money was won by champion Preston Duron. The Texas resident topped a tough final table to secure his first live tournament title and the top payout of $426,801.

Before coming out on top in this event, Duron’s top live score had been a $5,740 cash in a $600 buy-in event at the Millionaire Mayhem Poker Series. Like that event, this tournament was held at the Lodge Card Club in Round Rock, Texas. It ran from May 10-16, with seven starting flights before three days of combined-field play.

The 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year points that Duron earned as the champion of this event were enough to move him inside the top 100 in the 2023 POY race standings presented by Global Poker.

The top 81 finishers made the money, with big names like bracelet winner and World Poker Tour champion Alex Foxen (74th), bracelet winner Jesse Lonis (64th), bracelet winner Cord Garcia (59th), current dual WPT delayed final table chip leader Bin Weng (46th), bracelet winner Joey Weissman (35th), three-time WPT champion Eric Afriat (27th), card Player Poker Tour Choctaw main event winner Mo Abedi Arani (25th), Aram Oganyan (10th) all running deep.

WPT champion and bracelet winner Jared Jaffee finished in ninth for $37,558 when his A-K suited lost a flip to the pocket jacks of five-time bracelet winner and recent Lodge Championship Series $5,000 buy-in event winner Shaun Deeb. At that point the cards-up live stream of the final table began, with Deeb in the lead and Duron in second chip position.

Christian Roberts was the next to fall. He got all-in with a set of jacks against the turned nut flush of Devin Ullman. The river was no help to Roberts and he was eliminated in eighth place ($48,869). Scott Griffiths then ran K-J into the K-Q suited of Jason Daly to head to the rail with $64,020 for his seventh-place showing.

Deeb had slid down the leaderboard since the final table had begun and was sitting with just shy of 19 big blinds when he picked up A-Q in the hijack. He opened and then four-bet shoved over the three-bet of Duron, who had him dominated with A-K on the button. Deeb was unable to come from behind and was sent home in sixth place ($84,506). This was Deeb’s fifth final-table finish of the year, with three titles won and nearly $812,000 in POY earnings accrued along the way. As a result of this latest deep run, Deeb has climbed into 20th place in the POY rankings. He increased his career earnings to more than $12.8 million with this score.

Daniel Rezaei was knocked out on the money bubble of the $25,000 buy-in high roller at this series. he managed to bounce back from that to make the final table of the main event. He ultimately finished fifth when he called a small-blind shove from Duron with A-4 out of the big blind. Duron trailed with K-10, but a ten on the river gave him the best hand and the elimination. Rezaei cashed for $112,462.

Two-time bracelet winner Justin Saliba was involved in the next key pot. He three-bet shoved for around 23 big blinds facing a min-raise from Ullman, who was under the gun. Ullman went into the tank before making the call with A-9 suited, which had Saliba’s A-2 suited in rough shape. Ullman flopped nines and eights and held from there to knock Saliba out in fourth place ($151,727).

With that, Ullman entered three-handed play as the chip leader. He lost a huge pot against the flopped straight of Daly to fall out of the lead. Preston then managed to win with A-9 all-in against the A-K of Daly to move ahead of Ullman.

Ullman’s final hand saw his K-Q unable to come from behind against the A-6 of Daly. Ullman finished third for $207,852, while Daly moved on to face Duron for the title.

Heads-up began with Duron holding roughly a 3:2 chip lead. The two went on to battle for more than 90 minutes, with Duron improving to more than a 3:1 lead by the time the final hand was dealt. He raised from the button with K9 and Daly three-bet shoved all-in for 23 big blinds with AJ. Duron called and the board ran out 1053A2 to give Duron a rivered flush and the pot. Daly earned a career-best payday of $290,864 as the runner-up.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

Photo credit: The Lodge Card Club / Rachel Kay.

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