Congratulations to Paul Hopkins on winning Event 11! Paul secured the victory after a tough – and relatively long – heads-up battle against Susan Millstone.
Susan was a juggernaut at the final two tables, eliminating nearly half the remaining field. After already amassing a big stack, her run included knocking out Kevin in 11th place with a brutal one-outer on the river, followed shortly by Tom L in 10th when her pocket tens cracked his pocket aces. She went from a big stack, to a huge stack to a massive one!
By the time play reached heads-up, Susan still held a commanding chip advantage of nearly 3-to-1. For about 20 minutes, the two traded small pots as Paul worked to gain traction. The turning point came with blinds at 250k/500k and Susan still holding about a 2-to-1 lead. Paul opened to 1 million on the button, Susan raised to 2 million, and Paul called. The flop came X-3-3, and the stacks went in. Susan revealed KK, but Paul tabled 9♣3♣ for trips, completing the massive swing and flipping the stacks.
After several more hands, Paul managed to extend his lead some before Susan found a timely double-up, making a flush with just one diamond in her hand to beat Paul’s turned trips. That pot brought the match back to near even, with Paul barely covering Susan.
At the new blind level of 500k/1M (11 BB total!), Paul shoved with K-5, and Susan quickly called with A-4. The flop delivered a five, sealing the victory for Paul at 2:05 a.m.
This marks Paul’s seventh Syndicate victory, and his first since winning Event 10 in Season 17 – on his way to a first-place overall finish that season.
Anders finished in 3rd place, returning from his dancing travels just in time to post another top score – adding to his victory from way back in Event 5. 4th place went to Keithy “The Tilted Swami” Morgan, whose strong showing moved him up into the guaranteed seats with this finish. In 5th place, Gary Bousquet finally broke through a season-long drought, earning his first points of the season. In 6th place was Anthony, with his fourth final table of the season.
Final Table:
1. Paul H
2. Susan M
3. Anders
4. Keithy
5. Gary B
6. Anthony
7. Jon T
8. Chris O!
9. Robert
10. Tom L
The Leaderboard: The top two spots remained unchanged, with Scott N and Tom L holding steady in 1st and 2nd place, respectively.
Further down the standings, Keith and Susan moved ahead of Alan and Jonkey to claim spots in the guaranteed seats. Meanwhile, Paul H and Anders climbed into the final two positions in that section, tightening the race as the season continues.
WSOP Projections: While nothing is certain yet, the season is currently on pace to potentially award four WSOP Main Event seats. After the next event, we should have a clearer picture of where things stand and may adjust the leaderboard accordingly to reflect this possibility.
Next Up: Our next regular season event is Saturday, February 21st at 3:15. This will be a Major event with a 50k starting stack.
The Season 20 full results and information can be found HERE
San Diego Syndicate 