Event 5 was a 2-day $1,000 + $100 NL Hold’em Deepstack tournament part of the Playground Poker Fall Classic. A total of 243 players registered for the event, which resulted in a $235,710.00 prize-pool and a $54,630.00 top prize.
37 players bagged chips after 15 levels of play in Day 1, and they returned for Day 2 to crown a champion. With 31 places scheduled to be paid, the money bubble was reached fairly quickly. It then took 6 more levels to reach the final table of 10 players, at which point the field was virtually divided in two: 4 players were up above 1 million in chips, while the other 6 were below 400K. Lukas Soucek was the leader at the time, and although he gave it up to Pirooz Bayat not long after, he regained the top spot atop the leaderboard after winning a huge flip versus Christopher Willis Jackson in 6-handed action.
Once play reached heads-up, it was Lukas (3,635,000) versus Christopher (2,440,000). The clock was paused and the two negotiated a deal, agreeing to leave the required percentage for the eventual winner and to do an ICM chop for the remaining funds. Lukas locked in $45,000 while Christopher secured $41,000, and they played out for the remaining $6,060 and the Playground Poker Fall Classic Champion’s Trophy.
Heads-up lasted for the better part of 4 levels, during which we saw both players take the strangle-hold lead at some point. After much back and forth it was finally Lukas who managed to take a 3-to-1 chip lead when the final hand took place. With only 10 big blinds left, Christopher open-shoved from the small blind with 
and Lukas made the quick call with 
. The 
flop was huge for Christopher, as he made top pair with a flush draw, but the 
turn flipped the odds in Lukas’ favour, and the river 
brought no change.
With that hand, Lukas claimed the title of Event 5 champion, taking home a cool $51,600 cash prize, as well as the Champion’s Trophy and an entry to the champion’s freeroll for next series.
Congratulations!
Event 5 Champion: Lukas Soucek – $51,600.00
Event 5 runner-up: Christopher Willis Jackson – $41,000.00
Last hand of play
