Spencer Champlin ‘does a Moneymaker’ to bag Poker Masters opener

Accountant satellites in to a big event and takes it down for a big title and score? Sound familiar? Well, Spencer Champlin did a ‘mini-Moneymaker’ yesterday by parlaying a $560 sattie win into a Poker Masters trophy and $160,475.

To be fair, Champlin gave up his accountancy day job 8 years ago to turn pro and was closing in on $3million lifetime before he began event #1 at this year’s Poker Masters.

Sponsored by PokerStars NAPT, the series opener was a $5100 buy-in NLH and pulled in 131 entries. The prizepool of $655,000 would see the top 19 cash and it would be Adam Weinraub missing out after 4-bet shoving his big blind…

Eshaan Bhalla: A♠ J♦

Adam Weinraub: J♥ J♠

Flop: 9♠ 5♣ 4♠

Turn: 2♠

River: 10♠

Next stop was the final table but along the way we lost Ryan Riess 16^th for $9,825), Alex Foxen (15^th, also for $9,825), Chris Hunichen (11^th for $16,375), and Ike Haxton (8^th for $26,200) after losing a race for his tournament life…

Linde: 7♠ 7♦

Haxton: A♣ Q♠

Flop: A♦ 5♥ 4♥

Turn: 8♦

River: 7♥

That left Linde with the chip lead at the final table, closely followed by Jessica Vierling, who promptly dumped Matthew Wantman out to end the day’s play with six remaining and $32,750 locked up.

Day two dawned with a first hand KO as Nicholas Seward looked to double up by shoving a suited big slick only to be rivered away by Champlin pairing his queen.

Zachary Grech had to be content with 5^th place and a $39,300 payday, and then Dan Shak followed him almost immediately to the payout desk…

Shak: 10♠ 10♦

Vierling: 9♦ 9♣

The flop looked safe enough for an at-risk Shak…

Flop: Q♥ J♠ 7♦

…but the turn dealt a gut-wrenching body-blow…

Turn: 9♠

River: Q♦

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Down to just three players, Dylan Linde quickly found himself as the short stack and ran into a bigger hand when he made his stand, Champlin pairing the flop and then making trips on the turn.

Heads-up saw Vierling holding an almost exactly 2:1 chip lead and almost buried Champlin when she held aces against his top pair, but she could never quite finish things off.

Eventually they both got it all-in with big hands, Vierling at risk in the cooler situation…

Vierling: A♣ J♠

Champlin: A♠ Q♠

Flop: 9♣ 5♠ 3♠

Turn: A♥

River: Q♦

Champlin’s victory was his third-largest career score and fifth career six-figure score and sets him atop the leaderboard race for the Purple Jacket.

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Andrew Burnett

Professional Poker Journalist

An avid poker player, he dreams of one day playing the WSOP Main Event and has promised himself he will fold aces and kings if he gets them on the first hand to avoid front-page headlines. [more]