Congratulations to Isaac Haxton, Winner of Poker Masters Event #4: $10,000 Short Deck Poker ($176,000)
There were six players to take their seat at the final table in Event #4: $10,000 Short Deck Poker and after 5.5 hours of play, only one remained. Isaac Haxton captured the title along with $176,000 after defeating Maurice Hawkins in a heads-up battle that saw plenty of twists and turns.
With the win, Haxton has moved into second place on the Poker Masters leaderboard, just 30 points behind Brandon Adams. This was the third cash for Haxton in just four events thus far in the race for the Purple Jacket.
It was a new event for many of the players who are used to the conventional Texas Hold'em format and the action was fast and fierce for the most part. With the hand equities being so close preflop, it made for a lot of all-in and calls which saw chip stacks rise and fall rather quickly. "I played my first hand of Short Deck yesterday," Haxton said with a laugh. "As the blinds got higher, I started to learn a little more and I was just all in a lot over the last thirty hands."
Poker Masters Event #4 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Isaac Haxton | United States | $176,000 |
| 2nd | Maurice Hawkins | United States | $115,500 |
| 3rd | Ryan Tosoc | United States | $77,000 |
| 4th | Andrew Robl | United States | $55,000 |
| 5th | Cary Katz | United States | $44,000 |
| 6th | Dominik Nitsche | Germany | $33,000 |
Final Table Action
The chipleader coming into the day, Dominik Nitsche, was the first player to be bounced from the final table after a couple all-ins didn't go his way. Shortly after, Cary Katz put his short stack at risk with king-queen suited which plays fairly strong in this format but was unable to beat the ace-ten of Haxton.
The most experienced player at the final table in this variant of poker was Andrew Robl, having played quite often in Macau. Unfortunately, Robl also lost a couple of big pots and found himself with just a few antes. After doubling up twice, the third time wasn't as lucky when he ran into the full house of Ryan Tosoc. Three-handed play lasted over an hour before Tosoc wound up on a short stack of his own. His ace-ten was no match for Haxton's ace-jack when the board ran out clean, ending Tosoc's run in third place.
Hawkins took a slight lead into heads-up play versus Haxton, but the first four pots went Haxton's way as he quickly turned the tide. Hawkins continued to battle back and his table talk was relentless. In fact, Hawkins even retook the lead for a moment when Haxton's bluff was picked off by a check-raise from Hawkins.
Hawkins looked to have a stranglehold on the match when Haxton was all in with ace-jack against the pocket queens of Hawkins. However, an ace on the turn scored Haxton a huge double up and he never looked back. In the last hand of the night, the two players got all of the chips in the middle preflop and Haxton's flopped two pair was enough to hold on for the title.
That wraps up the PokerNews coverage for Event #4: $10,000 Short Deck Poker here at the Poker Masters. Check out the live coverage of Event #5: $25,000 No-Limit Hold'em currently underway and continue to follow all of the live updates throughout the entire event on PokerNews.com.
2018 Poker Masters Purple Jacket Rankings
| Rank | Player | Country | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Brandon Adams | United States | 510 |
| 2nd | Isaac Haxton | United States | 480 |
| T-3rd | David Peters | United States | 300 |
| T-3rd | Keith Lehr | United States | 300 |
| 5th | Jonathan Depa | United States | 270 |
| T-6th | Cary Katz | United States | 210 |
| T-6th | Jared Jaffee | United States | 210 |
| T-6th | Brian Green | United States | 210 |
| T-6th | Maurice Hawkins | United States | 210 |