Joe Cashen is the champion of the 2019 Card Player Poker Tour Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland $200,000 guaranteed $1,100 buy-in no-limit hold’em main event. The 60-year-old commercial contractor defeated a field of 192 total entries in this event to secure the title and the top prize of $50,680. This was the largest tournament score of Cashen’s career.

“I’ve been poker all my life, but no-limit hold’em tournaments since 2013 or so,” said Cashen after coming out on top. “It was a wonderful event. I had a lot of fun. I really put a lot of effort into taking this down.”

Cashen was a talkative and gregarious player at the table, and he told Card Player that is how he believes that things should be in a poker tournament.

“I love to have fun… if you aren’t having fun playing this game, you shouldn’t be here,” said Cashen.

Cashen came into the final table of this event in third chip position among the nine remaining players. Noah Shefrin began with the lead, and he extended that advantage by eliminating start-of-day short stack Ryan Hohner in ninth place ($5,088). Hohner was all-in preflop for 188,000 with A10 up against the 98 of Shefrin. The board came down K63J3 and Shefrin made a flush to send Hohner to the rail. This was his second CPPT final-table finish, having placed third in the main event held at Venetian Las Vegas in December of 2018.

The next player to fall was Mukala Sikyala. He got his last chips in the middle in a classic race situation, with his AK facing the QQ of Jonathan Gilliam. The J10877 runout kept Gilliam ahead, sending Sikyala home with $5,930.

Seven-handed play continued for more than two hours. Chris Grove was eventually knocked out in seventh place when he ran A8 into the AK of Noah Shefrin. Grove failed to come from behind and was sent packing with $6,800.

The final six battled it out for nearly two more hours before the next elimination took place. In that time Noah Shefrin’s stack slowly dwindled until he was one of the shortest left. He shoved over the top of a opening raise of 80,000 from Cashen for 300,000 with A6. Cashen called with the J6. The board came down J8479 and Cashen made a pair of jacks to bust Shefrin in sixth place. He took home $7,980 for his deep run.

The paced started to pick up during short-handed action. John Jones got the last of his chips in with J9, only to get called by Richie Smith with the KJ. Smith flopped a king and held from there to eliminate Jones in fifth place ($9,630).

Smith scored his second knockout of the day when he called the all-in of Jonathan Gilliam with AQ. He had Gilliam’s A10 dominated, and furthered his advantage by flopping a queen. Gilliam was unable to come from behind and was knocked out in fourth place, earning $12,470.

With that Smith and Cashen took the two biggest stacks into three-handed play with Mukharji Uppalapati, who finished 18th in the inaugural CPPT main event held here at Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland back in January of 2018. With a flop of 742, Cashen bet 150,000 and Uppalapati called. The turn was the 4 and Cashen checked. Uppalapati moved all-in for 365,000. Cashen called with the A2. Uppalapati held the 85. The river was the J and Cashen’s pair of deuces was enough to send Uppalapati home with $20,500 as the third-place finisher.

With that Cashen took 5,180,000 into heads-up play with Richie Smith, who held 2,500,000. The final showdown didn’t last all that long. Just a few hands into their battle, Smith limped in from the button and Cashen raised to 150,00 out of the big blind.

Smith called and the flop came down A94. Cashen checked and Smith fired out 350,000. Cashen check-raised all-in and Smith called with the Q5 for a flush draw. Cashen held the AK for top pair, top kicker. The 8 turn and the 6 river locked up the title for Cashen. Smith earned $34,572 as the runner-up.

Cashen earned 336 Card Player Player of the Year points as the champion. This was his fourth POY-qualified score of 2019, and it moved him into 959th place in the overall standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

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

Joe Cashen – 5,180,000
Richie Smith – 2,500,000

Blinds are up to 30,000-50,000 with a big blind ante of 50,000 for level 26.

Jonathan Gilliam shoved all-in for 730,000 and got called by Richie Smith. It was a classic race situation, with Gilliam holding AK up against the 66 of Smith.

The Q779K runout gave Gilliam the winning pair of kings on the river to earn him the double up to around 1.5 million.

Smith fell to 2.2 million after the hand.

Blinds are up to 20,000-40,000 with a big blind ante of 40,000 for level 25.