Steve Sung Wins Wynn Poker Fall Classic Championship For $170,550

The 2018 Wynn Poker Fall Classic Championship $1,600 NLHE Main Event with a $500,000 guaranteed prize pool attracted a total of 594 players. Outlasting the field, Steve Sung (cover image) took down the event for a glittering top prize of $170,550.

This is Sung’s first major live tournament win in the past five years. Known at one time as ‘Muggylicious’ when he was an online poker regular, Sung now boasts of over $5.5 Million in live tournament earnings. He won the $1,000 NLHE at 2009 WSOP for $771,338 and followed it up with another bracelet win at the 2013 WSOP, where he won the $25,000 NLHE Six-handed for a career-best score of $1,205,324.

“It’s interesting how it’s hard for me to smile after winning. I felt a mixture of emotions. I felt joy, relief, and also sorry for beating a friend of mine in Joseph Cheong. Anywho, I’m glad to have gotten heads up with him. You really played great Joe,” the two-time World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner tweeted after his win.

Sung was also responding to his heads-up opponent Joseph Cheong’s tweet right before the heads-up match, where Cheong shared that he had entered the heads-up with a stack of 2 Million against Sung’s 13 Million.

Hu vs og steve sung. My 2mil to his 13mil lol. Gl me @WynnPoker pic.twitter.com/yFJKy4e6xS

— Joseph Cheong (@subiime) October 15, 2018

Cheong also went on to declare his runner-up finish on Twitter later.

&

Got 2nd. Congrats to steve

— Joseph Cheong (@subiime) October 16, 2018

Smashing the $500,000 guarantee, a prize pool of $864,270 was generated across the entry field and the top 62 finishers took a slice of the prize money that assured a min-cash of $3,665.

The final table saw heavyweights like Ryan LaPlante and Katie Lindsay in the running while a host of top players including Samantha Cohen (22^nd for $7,149), Jordon Cristos (34^th for $5,453), Jeremy Ausmus (45^th for $4,167), British pro Simon Deadman (47th for $4,167), Bryan Piccioli (53^rd for $4,167), Justin Young (54^th for $3,665) and Ireland’s Rory Brown (60^th for $3,665) managed to post scores in the event.

Final Table Recap

The Wynn Poker Fall Classic Championship Main Event final table was a star-studded affair though eliminations were swift enough sending most of the big names to the rail early on.

After Alfredo Torres’ elimination in ninth place, Ryan Laplante hit the rail in eighth place. Shortly thereafter, Katie Lindsay wife of British poker legend Chris Moorman also followed suit, in seventh place.

Deihanosch Mahmoudian was the next one out in fifth place, leaving only four players in the running.

Canada’s Ryan Yu scored a fourth-place finish and Russia’s Karen Sarkisyan joined the rail after being busted in third place.

The heads-up between Joseph Cheong and Sung lasted not more than 45 minutes and Cheong was tweeting to update his followers along the way. Finally, it was Sung who came out on top, while Cheong had to settle for a runner-up finish.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Steve Sung – $170,550

2. Joseph Cheong – $111,404

3. Karen Sarkisyan – $75,624

4. Ryan Yu – $53,082

5. Deijanosch Mahmoudian – $39,324

6. Tuan Mai – $30,509

7. Katie Lindsay – $24,286

8. Ryan Laplante – $20,137

9. Alfredo Torres – $17,026