Josh Reichard Wins Season XIV HPT Championship, Aaron Johnson Declared HPT Season XIV Player of the Year

Wrapping up its year-long schedule of poker tournaments, the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Season XIV culminated with the $2,500 Championship at Ameristar in East Chicago on Tuesday.

The event drew 434 players to the field creating a prize pool of $965,650. Besting the field, Wisconsin pro Josh Reichard (cover image) took down the event to take home the winner’s cheque worth $221,294.

Another big winner to be declared at the stop was Aaron Johnson, who finished sixth in the event adding enough points to his tally to clinch the 2018 HPT Player of the Year title.

Reichard who knocked out four players from the final table also took home a HPT watch, trophy and won a package worth $3,500 to the Season XV HPT Season Championship.

Notables who scored at the event included Keven Stammen (24^th for $7,697), Matt Shepsky (26^th for $7,697), Andy Rogowski (27^th for $7,697), Shawn Roberts (28^th for $6,254), Casey Carroll (35^th for $6,254), and Cody Brinn (44^th for $5,292).

While 133 players returned on Day 2 of the event, only 15 among them advanced to Day 3. On the final day, the elimination of Mark Morris (11^th for $16,453), Mike Scarborough (12^th for $16,453), Yoon Kim (13^th for $12,412) and Ed Ochana (14th for $12,412) brought the remaining 10 players together on the unofficial final table. Emmett Hickey (10^th for $16,453) was eliminated next, and there onwards, the nine-handed final table was live streamed.

Coming into the final table with the largest stack was Pittsburgh’s Bobby Noel (4,110,000), with Reichard (2,530,000) and Jimmy Gumila (1,175,000) the next biggest stacks.

Final Table Recap

The nine-handed final table saw players falling off fairly quickly. George Pappas was the first player to leave in ninth place and was followed to the rail in eighth place by Jimmy Gumila.

2017 WSOPC Potawatomi Main event champion Ala Aqel was eliminated next, in seventh place, narrowing the field to the six finalists.

Noel continued to remain in the lead and soon Aaron Johnson was eliminated in sixth place at the hands of Richard Bai.

Next up, 2017 MSPT Wisconsin State Poker Championship winner Richard Bai moved all in preflop and was called by Reichard. Bai tabled versus Reichard’s . The board ran and Bai was eliminated in fifth place.

Adam Greenberg then moved all in preflop with and Reichard made the call with . The board ran out keeping Reichard in the lead, while Greenberg was eliminated in fourth place.

Despite getting a double up through Reichard, Jim Kasputis was the player at risk when he moved all in preflop and Reichard decided to make the call. Kasputis’ were trailing Reichard’s and although he picked up a broadway draw on the flop, the on the turn and the on the river bricked his chances and Kasputishad to make his way to the rail in third place.

Reichard came up against the final table chip leader Bobby Noel in the heads-up face off with a mind-boggling 10-to-1 chip lead. What seemed like an exercise in futility turned out to be quite an exciting contest, as Noel fought well, and won three big pots in quick succession to reduce Reichard’slead down to 3-to-1. However, shortly thereafter the final hand was dealt, where on the flop both players moved all in. Reichard tabled for a flopped flush, while Noel tabled for top pair and a draw to a better flush. As the dealer peeled out the on the turn and the on the river, Reichard’s flush won him the title!

Final Table Results (USD)

1.Josh Reichard – $221,293

2. Bobby Noel – $136,625

3. Jim Kasputis – $90,923

4. Adam Greenberg – $63,021

5. Richard Bai – $47,626

6. Aaron Johnson – $37,043

7. Ala Aqel – $30,789

8. Jimmy Gumila – $25,497

9. George Pappas – $21,552