ARIA Resort and Casino recently held the BetMGM Poker Championship $3,500 Main Event that Joey Weissman won after beating Paul Hoefer in a heads-up match. Weissman got into the play and doubled up his opponent twice.
The event lasted for four hours. It had 343 entrants who formed slightly less than $1.1 million as the prize pool. Out of these, 68 players qualified for the tournament in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, or Michigan.
Weissman is a World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet champion. He added $224,235 to the previous $4.1 he had as lifetime poker earnings, according to a Hendon Mob report.
The player informed PokerNews reporters that that is what many professional players wake up to do. But they occasionally lose some events.
Weissman quoted Patrick Leonard, his close friend, who likes saying that a player wakes up, suffers, sleeps, wakes up, suffers, and does it again. He added that that was the day he had woken up for as he loses and wins on other days.
The Final Table's Results
- Joey Weissman from the U.S. – $224,236
- Paul Hoefer from Germany – $159,152
- Noel Rodriguez from the U.S. – $104,272
- Michael Wang from the U.S. – $65,856
- Benji Felson from the U.S. – $51,587
- Joe Kuether from the U.S. – $41,709
- Zachary Donovan from the U.S. – $34,026
- Todd Ivens from the U.S. – $28,538
- Albert Nguyen from Canada – $24,147
Action at the Final Table
There were only six players when Day 4's action began. Yet, the winner was determined after almost seven hours of intense play.
Joe Kuether was the first finalist to leave the event after his ace-queen lost to Hoefer's pocket queens. He went home in sixth place with $41,709.
Benji Felson was at the bottom of the BetMGM poker qualifier table. He followed Kuether after using a top pair to go in, but Hoefer out-kicked it.
The player left the table in fifth place and won $51,587, thus giving him an over 100× return on his $500 investment. Also, it was the largest score in his poker career.
Weissman's Journey to Victory
Michael Wang, a former bracelet champion, used pocket queens to go all-in against Weissman's ace-jack of diamonds. He remained, and Weissman got a Royal Flush from the river card to crack his opponent's queens.
Wang continued smiling despite taking the huge beat and exiting the event in fourth place. Noel Rodriguez left the table in third place after using king-queen to make a three-bet shove. But, he failed to improve against Weissman's ace-jack.
The latter had a huge stack lead as he got in heads-up play against Hoefer. But the latter doubled twice to maintain his run.
Weissman had an ace-four in the final hand as Hoefer put in his remaining stack. The latter used king-deuce to call and out flopped the former before he got an ace on the river that helped him win the event and hand.
This was an unexpected spin-up for his opponent as he had 12 big blinds at the beginning of the final day. Still, he finished the event as a runner-up and won $159,152.
Weissman informed PokerNews reporters that he was extra cautious in the heads-up battle even though he had a huge chip lead. Surprisingly, he beat Adam Hendrix on the same PokerGO Studio in 2021 and won $204,000 in the U.S. Poker Open Event No. 5:$10,000 No-Limit Hold'em.
