| Level: | 37 (500000/1000000/1000000) |
| Entries: | 1/1203 |
| Prizes: | $377,141 (Day 2: $298,274) |
That was perhaps the craziest heads-up I’ve watched in my time reporting. It wouldn’t have mattered who won, there was a story to tell. For the eventual winner, Corey Arsenault, he was down to 90k when play was 10-handed and blinds were 100k/150k/150k.
He didn’t even have a single big blind when he started his comeback to the win. Arsenault got a double through Sean Sztyler before Sztyler hit the rail in 7th. he then sent Zeyu Jia home in 6th to stack up 17 million and take the big lead. Arsenault then chipped Amarjot Brar down significantly in a cooler where both players hit trip sevens, then Arsenault found a boat for a big pot.
That set up a double knockout that took the game from five to three in one hand. Arsenault called off Brar and Ngoc Nguyen with pocket jacks and the big stack, and his jacks held, giving him about 30 million three-ways. Runner up Anthony Casten then got them heads up by taking out Shengdong Zhao in 3rd, but Casten was looking across the table at a mountain of chips in front of Arsenault.
Casten is a fierce local competitor, however, and even on a big deficit, he’s not one to count out. He max-late reg’d this one for 10 big blinds, and spun that up to the heads up.
Initially, it looked like it was all Casten in the heads up. Arsenault seemed to be waiting for the spot call Casten off with a huge hand, but Casten slowly chipped away at the lead until the starting stacks were reversed, and Arsenault was down to around 13 million to 35 million for Casten.
That’s when Arsenault found another gear. He grabbed a double after shoving an all-club flop with the nut draw against Casten’s middle pair. Arsenault turned it, and he doubled to about 3:2 down.
Then came a series of three hands that may well be the craziest three hands in a row I’ve ever seen in a live poker game. Arsenault doubled back to a big lead when the money went in preflop with Arsenault on a small ace and Casten on king-queen of spades.
Arsenault flopped his ace and turned trips, but the turn gave Casten a spade draw to win the ring. He bricked it and sent a huge double to Arsenault.
That left Casten on fumes with about 8 million, 10 bigs at the time. He shoved his button blind, only for Arsenault to wake up with ace-king suited. Casten wasn’t expecting much when he checked his cards for the first time, but somehow he found the most unlikely of hands — pocket aces. The rockets held, doubling Casten back to about 3:2 down.
Immediately after, Casten flopped a pair, while Arsenault flopped the nut straight, and the money went in. The board paired on the turn, and Casten found an unlikely nine on the river to boat up and double back to the lead.
That left Arsenault on fumes, but he wasn’t even close to done. Casten shoved the big stack on the button, and Arsenault called for a non-standard race with Arsenault jack-ten off against king-seven of diamonds for Casten. Arsenault found a ten on the flop, but Casten flopped the flush draw. Casten took the lead on the turn with a king, until Arsenault found a jack on the river for two pair and another double.
Arsenault doubled back to even when he flopped the straight again and the money went in on the turn after Casten flopped top pair. That put them back on even terms, but Arsenault was able to chip up a bit to take the lead before the final hand happened in Level 37 with blinds at 500k/1m/1m.
In the final confrontation, the money went in on the flop with Casten holding gapped cards with some backdoor straight outs. He shoved, hoping to push Arsenault off his hand, but after about 2 minutes in the tank, Arsenault called it off with just king-high. The king-high held for Arseault’s first Circuit ring.
