Event #6 of the October Power Weekend, the Megastack Turbo Re-entry, had a robust turnout of 86 entries. The huge starting stack of 50,000 in chips was immensely appealing and helped create some wild action in the early levels. Given the number of chips and the turbo format, the players sprinted out of the gate and put those chips to work. There was no shortage of huge opening bets and raises, enough to even bring about 11 re-entries before the end of the late registration and re-entry period.
Trevor Dixon jumped out to the early lead, but he saw the cards turn against him following the first break and ended up busting in the middle of the pack. Anderson Frank-Graham had his turn in the driver’s seat at the second break, but he was soon overtaken by our eventual champion, Stefano Parisé.
Parisé had a healthy stack from the early levels, but the turning point for him arrived in the fourteenth level of play when he took down a massive four-way all in pot to catapult his way in to the chip lead. It turned out to be a lead he would not relinquish, as he had the biggest stack in play all the way to the end of the tournament. He picked his spots carefully (and successfully) in the late stages and found ways to steadily increase his stack.
Once play began at the final table, Parisé’s chip lead had narrowed significantly. But he quickly distanced himself from the rest of the field once again when he eliminated Fabien Domenech, who had one of the larger stacks in play, in the first orbit. At that stage, Parisé had a huge chip lead, and he stayed out of the fray as the other players gradually eliminated each other. When it came down to the final three – Parisé, Joshua Caballero and Joshua Peteigney – two big hands collided, and Parisé eliminated Caballero following a huge flip where his pocket jacks held against Caballero’s ace-king.
Parisé had a gigantic chip advantage over Peteigney when heads-up play began, leading by more than a 10:1 margin. Despite doubling up Peteigney early on, Parisé was never at risk. In the end, it came down to a classic race in a pre-flop all in, and one of Parisé’s over cards to Peteigney’s pair connected with the board to seal the victory.
It turned out to be a good showing for Peteigney who made his first ever cash at a Power Weekend event, taking home $1,508 as the runner-up. But this was truly Parisé’s day, congratulations to our Megastack champion!
Event #6 Champion: Stefano Parisé, $2,072
Last hand of play:
