American poker player Ryan Riess earned the champion title at the 2017 $10,000 WPT Seminole Hard Rock Poker Finale. The 26-year old poker pro succeeded in defeating opponent Alan Sternberg in a head-to-head battle for the first-place prize of $716,088. In addition to the hefty payout, Riess was awarded the prestigious WPT Champions Trophy and will have his name added on the WPT Champions Cup, next to the names of all players, who have championed the WPT for the past fifteen seasons.
The tournament’s finale, which took place at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Hollywood in Florida, attracted a tough field of 349 players, who generated a prize pool of $3,315,500. Riess joined five opponents at the six-handed final table and was second in chips. The first player to head to the cashier’s cage was Cliff Josephy, whose ace-jack failed him against the pocket kings of opponent Alan Sternberg. Josephy collected a total of 130,370 in chips for the sixth position.
Josephy was followed by Jason Koon, whose [Qh][10d] proved to be powerless against Terry Schumacher’s [Ah][6c]. The board ran [Ad][Jh][4c][7h][8h], leading to Koon’s elimination in fifth place, with 157,599 in chips.
Tim West managed to survive a couple of all-ins despite his short stack. West then went all in from the small blind with [Kh][Jd] and succeeded in pairing his jack on the flop. The turn brought [Kd] allowing West to form a two pair. However, Riess turned over [Ac][10s] for a straight and sent West to the fourth place, with 204,466 in chips.
Shortly after West’s elimination, Terry Schumacher followed in his footsteps. Schumacher went home with $315,726 in prize money after his [Jh][7h] failed him against Riess’ pocket nines. Schumacher finished third as the board ran [Ac][6d][5c][Kd][4h].
At this point, it was all down to the last two survivors at the final table. Riess and Alan Sternberg commenced a heads-up battle, with each player holding over a hundred big blinds. However, it was Sternberg who started heads-up play as a chip leader. It took a long time for the outcome of the final match to be resolved as over a hundred hands were played before a winner was proclaimed.
Sternberg doubled up with his pocket eights and prevailed over Riess’ pocket sevens. The 210th hand of the tournament’s final table saw Riess raising to $450,000. Sternberg responded by re-raising to $1,150,000 to see his opponent move all in after some consideration. Sternberg was then quick to call with a starting hand of [7s][7d] but his opponent flipped over[Ah][Kh].
The board showed [Kc][6s][6d][Kd][10c], earning Riess the trophy and $716, 088 in first-place prize money. The prize includes a $15,000 buy-in into the Monsters WPT Tournament of Champions. Sternberg left the final table with $491,081 for the runner-up position.
This is hardly the first time Riess secures the champion title at a WPT event. The 26-year old player has cashed a total of eight times at previous WPT events and emerged victorious in 2013, when he collected $8,361,570 in first-place prize money. This latest win is the second-biggest cash of Riess, who currently sits at $10,035,044 in total live earnings.
- Author
Harry Evans
