Rudy Cadenas Takes Lion's Share of Deal in Event #4 ($54,231)
The fourth event of the Lodge Championship Series has come to an end here in Round Rock, Texas. A total of six Day 1 flights were played in Event 4: $400 NLH $500,000 Gauranteed, gathering 1,556 registrants throughout. This created a $526,640 prize pool that had the eventual winner set to take home $82,024 for their victory.
When the final day began there were 186 runners, all of which had made the money, and when the field hit five-handed play a deal was agreed upon between Rudy Cadenas, Benjamin Perez, Seth Simmons, Chris Staats, and Jonathan Letempt.
Cadenas took home the lion's share for a total of $54,231, but it was Letempt taking home the trophy after the two flipped a classic piece of American copper. Letempt won the last flip of the tournament, which secured him the trophy to go along with his $41,408 pay day.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
| 1 | Rudy Cadenas | Las Vegas, NV | $54,231* |
| 2 | Benjamin Perez | Plainview, TX | $46,937* |
| 3 | Seth Simmons | Nathrop, CO | $45,347* |
| 4 | Jonathan Letempt | San Marcos, TX | $41,408* |
| 5 | Chris Staats | Tuttle, OK | $39,981* |
| 6 | Elijah Ruffin | Chandler, AZ | $17,379 |
| 7 | Eider Da Cruz | Gardena, CA | $13,693 |
| 8 | Scott Brewer | N/A | $10,533 |
| 9 | Hieu Tran | Amarillo, TX | $8,426 |
*denotes deal made at final table
The fourth event here at The Lodge Poker Club had a very enticing $500,000 guarantee, especially for only being a $400 buy-in. Six Day 1's were lined up to pump the prize pool, and the 1,556 registration slips that were accumulated during that time did just that, having a total of $526,640 for the remaining 186 Day 2 qualifiers to fight over.
Many short stacks fell to the wayside early in the day, and as the field began to plummet some of the leaders followed. Cosmic Medrano and Alexander Connolly both began near the top of the leaderboard but quickly began to lock horns. After going blow-for-blow on table 119, they both moved and quickly vanished from the field. Some other notables that failed to find the final table include Blake Whittington, Eric Salazar, Jason Gooch, and Benjamin Anderson who took a couple of bad beats during the last two tables of the night, sending most of his stack to Letempt.
Kevin Xu fought as long as he could and almost made a complete turn around before falling to Eider Da Cruz, setting the official final table. Just before the first break of the final table, Cadenas pulled out his one-time card on Simmons. He pushed a turned board with nines and Simmons tank-called holding a pair of dimes for the best hand. Cadenas then found a fortuitous nine on the river to stay alive, doubling through Simmons in the process.
Just after the break, it was Hieu Tran who was the first to take an exit, dropping back-to-back hands with Cruz finishing him off. Cadenas then hopped in for a few hands with Scott Brewer, which resulted in Brewer taking a walk to the payout desk. The start of Day 2 chipleader was next on the chopping block after he shoved ace-jack of spades and was called by Staats who held just ace-seven. A hockey stick on the river doubled Staats, leaving Cruz in shambles. He pushed shortly after with a pair of sevens, only to run into the pocket nines of Perez who then flopped a set to eliminate Cruz.
Some talk was in the air about a chop when it reached the final six but Elijah Ruffin found himself a little to shallow-stacked to complete the conversation and took a shot with five-deuce. Perez called with kojak and ended the hand with a boat, eliminating Ruffin from the field in sixth place.
The tournament clock was then paused and the rest is history. Congratulations to Rudy Cadenas on taking home the biggest prize, and also to Jonathan Letempt on securing a trophy for his mantle.
That wraps it up for the PokerNews live coverage of Event 4, but tune in tomorrow for all the updates on the $600 Mystery Bounty.