Jeff Trudeau Takes Down WPTDeepStacks Tampa For $120,842

Premier live poker brand World Poker Tour (WPT) DeepStacks hosted the first stop of its Season XVIII at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Tampa recently. Giving a great headstart to the WPTDeepStacks schedule, the $1,100 buy-in attracted a field of 659 entries over three starting flights. Earning the lion’s share of the $639,000 prize pool was Jeff Trudeau (cover image) who defeated Fabian Foster heads-up to capture the title and $120,842 in prize money. Trudeau’s paycheque includes a $3,000 package to the season-ending WPTDeepStacks Championship. The victory takes the Florida native’s live earnings above the $1.5 Million-mark.

The top 83 finishers earned at least $1,559 and this included notables like Richard Carr (15^th for $7,794), Nathan Lee (33^rd for $3,118) and Kevin Green (17^th for $6,490).

Alex Kimpel (10^th for $9,792) and Carleen Heath (11^th for $9,792) fell whiskers short of the nine-handed final table.

The nine finalists resumed play on the final day, all in the hunt for the top prize.

Final Table Chip Counts

1. Dan Chalifour – 4,755,000
2. Jeff Trudeau – 4,650,000
3. Saj Illikal – 3,530,000
4. Fabian Foster – 1,950,000
5. Ryan Anderkin – 1,520,000
6. Mark Scacewater – 990,000
7. Alex Kimpel – 975,000
8. Wendy Vo – 715,000
9. Peter Walsworth – 655,000

Final Table Recap

Alex Kimpel, Ryan Anderkin and Peter Walsworth were eliminated in quick succession.

Foster got active by taking out two players in short intervals – Mark Scacewater in sixth and Dan Chalifour in fifth place.

Two hands after Chalifour left, Saj Illikal was eliminated by Wendy Vo who held ace-king against Illikal’s pocket sevens but turned a king.

Wendy Vo had quite a remarkable run on the final table, and moved all-in 10 times. Vo won nine straight all-in showdowns and chopped the 10^th. But for all her efforts, Vo went short stacked during three-handed play, and on her 11^th all-in move, Vo shoved for 1.7 Million from the big blind with and came up against Foster who made the call with . The board fell and Foster turned top pair eliminating Vo in third place.

An epic heads-up then ensued between Trudeau and Fabian Foster that saw the former come in with a stack of 13 Million as against the latter’s 6.725 million, and though Foster fought hard, it was Trudeau who walked away with the top prize. The last hand saw Trudeau raise from the small blind with 900,000 and Foster moved all in from the big blind with 6.27 Million, getting an immediate call from Trudeau.

Jeff Trudeau

Fabian Foster

The board ran and Trudeau’s two-pair won him the pot and the WPTDeepStacks title!

Jeff Trudeau

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Jeff Trudeau – $120,842*
2. Fabian Foster – $82,627
3. Wendy Vo – $53,259
4. Saj Illikal – $38,765
5. Dan Chalifour – $29,712
6. Mark Scacewater – $23,776
7. Peter Walsworth – $19,704
8. Ryan Anderkin – $15,689
9. Alex Kimpel – $11,783

*Includes a $3,000 seat into the WPTDeepStacks Championship

Content & Images Courtesy: World Poker Tour