Tunica has crowned Preston McEwen with the title of $1,700 Main Event, giving him the reward of $183,653 after he won a two-handed table with Carl Masters. The event registered a total of 642 entries for a prize pool of $972,630. It was a 3-day event wherein only the top five made it to Day 3 for the final table.
John Gallaher went all-ins but ended up securing the fifth rank for $45,355. His departure paved the way for Buck Bucceri to leave. He had a chance to stay a little longer, but he blew it when he saw an ace-four into McEwen’s pocket aces.Nonetheless, he managed to take home $60,713 back.
The top three hands brought a lot of excitement since the action could tilt in any direction. Masters and Michael Monaghan battled in the final moments that were about to deliver the third-ranked champion. Michael agreed to the spot and the amount of $82,434. Based on the latest online poker news reports, If he had received a slight boost in his skill set, the negotiation might have gone a little longer.
Carl and Preston came face to face for the top position. Preston went ahead to defeat his competitor and claim the title with a lot of conveniences. While Carl took into account a reward worth $113,504, Preston managed to bag a lion’s share of the prize pool to register his biggest-ever cash to date, with the previous one coming just a few months ago.
McEwen had a nice trip this season. He won five events and reached the final table in three of them.
What really boosted his confidence was winning the Monster Stack, since it re-confirmed that he knew what he was doing. My game right now is sharper than ever, said McEwen after recounting his win at the Monster Stack.
Before entering Monster Stack, he also recalled a period during which he barely broke even. This is a perfectly acceptable statement, except when one has a family to support and expenses to pay. The victory at Monster Stack earned the 34-year-old former singer and current poker professional $133,830.
Day 3 was a puzzle, considering Preston was sitting at the table in the 4th position in terms of chips out of five hands. He still had 37 big blinds to lock him up throughout the game.
I just woke up today feeling like I was going to win, stated the champion, who says that he knew it was his day to shine at the table.
That he did by checking every major box to win the main event.
The top nine participants took a guarantee of at least $16,000, with Kevin Jenkins securing $16,351 for the ninth position. Everyone else cashed out an amount larger than that.
