John Griswold Wins Event #4 of the 2018 WNYPC for $3,821
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The latest champion of the 2018 Western New York Poker Challenge is American, John Griswold. Griswold topped a field of 152 entries in Event #4: $120 No-Limit Hold'em $10,000 Guarantee defeating Leo Kaplin heads up to claim a top prize of $3,821.
Griswold entered the final table second and chips and rarely lost a pot until the final moments. Impressively, this will be just the second-ever cash on Griswold's live-recorded career tournament resume. His only previous cash came back in 2015 at this very series placing 10th in a $20 NLHE event for $516.
Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Griswold | United States | $3,821 |
| 2 | Leo Kaplin | United States | $2,400 |
| 3 | John Abraham | United States | $1,733 |
| 4 | Player Unknown | United States | $1,227 |
| 5 | Jeff Dio | United States | $939 |
| 6 | Ben Bracken | Canada | $736 |
| 7 | John Fluder | United States | $563 |
| 8 | Marty Derbyshire | Canada | $433 |
| 9 | Malgorzata Kurtyko | United States | $347 |
| 10 | Janet Tricoli | United States | $274 |
The event drew a total of 152 entries that created a prize pool of $14,400, easily surpassing the $10,000 guarantee. The top 18 spots were to be paid out but once play got down to the money bubble, the 19 remaining players decided to remove $120 from the top two prizes and give the next player to bust their money back. From there, the post-bubble bust out bonanza claimed the next eight players swiftly setting up a final table of 10.
Most of the finalists began the final table with sub ten big blind stacks and had no choice but to get their stacks in the middle.
Janet Tricoli and Malgorzata Kurtyko were eliminated in back-to-back hands eliminated by the unknown player and John Fluder respectively. Just moments later, Marty Derbyshire and Fluder also fell in consecutive hands, both falling victim to the unknown player.
Ben Bracken was the next player to be eliminated, dwindling down to just three big blinds before having his chips taken by John Abraham. Jeff Dio followed Bracken after losing his last ten big blinds to Kaplin, dominated by a higher ace-kicker hand.
The final four played for a couple levels as the stacks kept getting more shallow. With three of them having sub ten big blind stacks, the unknown player was the first to crack, knocked out by the big stack of Griswold. Nursing a short stack for the better part of the final table, Abraham finally had his luck run out, getting it in good against Kaplin but not being able to hold, setting up a heads-up battle between Kaplin and Griswold.
Kaplin started the battle with the chip lead but a big hand where his kings were cracked shifted the lead to Griswold. Just a couple hands later, Griswold had Kaplin all in and at risk. Kaplin was ahead with ace-three but Griswold made trips with king-queen after both flopped a pair and it held to capture the Event #4 title.
The next title hunting opportunity comes with Event #5: $120 No-Limit Hold'em $10,000 Guarantee which kicks off at 5 PM on Wednesday evening.
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