In what was a relatively quick final table, Scotland’s Niall Farrell emerged as the champion of the 2016 partypoker World Poker Tour Caribbean stop in Punta Cana on Wednesday night, defeating Troy Quenneville in heads up play.
It wasn’t your typical “final day” of action on the WPT as 11 players remained at the start of action on Wednesday. Looking to earn his second WPT title, Keven Stammen was in the lead at the crack of the gun, his 1.764 million chips lording impressively over Quenneville (1.36 million) and Anthony Augustino. Farrell (1.3 million) was in control of the second table, but just barely over Colin Moffatt (1.249 million).
The first task at hand was getting to the official WPT six-handed final table, which the combatants attacked with glee. Farrell was lucky from the start of the day, getting away with only losing a couple hundred thousand chips when Moffatt’s J-9 cracked his pocket Aces on a 9-9-6-6-9 board. That slight setback didn’t affect Farrell, however, as he quickly rebounded to oust Jorge Arias from the tournament in 11th place. Once Moffatt dumped Vishal Maini in 10th place to crack the two million chip mark, the final nine redrew for seats and the race for the championship was on.
Stammen would not be as fortunate as some of his fellow competitors during the final day of play. His chip stack slowly dwindled through the early action and, after Augustino raised his big blind, Stammen thought he could force him off with an all-in move. Augustino didn’t go away, however, calling his bet and tabling pocket Jacks for action. Stammen, battling from behind with his pocket nines, never saw a glimmer of hope on the A-4-2-8-K board and departed the tournament in eighth place as Augustino moved into the lead.
Augustino extended that lead in taking out Duff Charette on the television table “bubble” and headed to the six-handed action with a whopping 3.435 million in chips, holding a decent lead over Quenneville (2.325 million) and more than twice what the third-place competitor Moffatt (1.505 million) held. The remainder of the players were left in survival mode at the start of the official final table, with Yiannis Liperis (860K), Farrell (805K) and Stephen Woodhead (750K) looking to get back in the game.
After the warmup of working down to the final table, the players were firing bets from the start of the official final table. Farrell would get a much-needed double through Moffatt, his Q-J finding a Jack against Moffatt’s pocket tens, and he got even healthier in knocking out Woodhead in sixth place, his A-J standing tall against Woodhead’s A-10 on an eight-high board. Just as quickly as he rocketed out of the basement, however, Farrell’s rollercoaster style would send him back down after his pocket fives failed to best Moffatt’s pocket Jacks.
As Farrell entertained the viewers on the live stream of the event, Augustino was more interested in keeping his lead. Augustino tried to take down Liperis, Augustino’s K♠ Q♠ versus Liperis’ pocket sevens, but a seven on the flop ended that quest. Liperis then would challenge for the lead before giving up a sizeable chunk of chips to Quenneville, who jumped into the first slot when his pocket Jacks held up against Liperis’ A-K off suit.
With five players remaining, Quenneville’s 4.2 million chips seemed to have him set to drive even deeper into the field. The question was who from the other four players would emerge as a worthy contender. Augustino drew first blood, knocking off Liperis in fifth place when his A-9 played over Liperis’ A-3 on a J-6-4-7-4 board, and Farrell stormed from behind in doubling through Quenneville and eliminating Moffatt in fourth, his pocket sixes catching a set on the turn after Moffatt had flopped two pair with his A-7 on an A-10-7-6-J board.
Down to three-handed action, Farrell kicked his game into overdrive. He doubled through Quenneville, his Big Chick hitting against Quenneville’s Big Slick on a Q-8-6-6-A board, to rocket to nearly seven million in chips and then eliminated Augustino in third place when his Q-9 rivered a straight to top Augustino’s A-6. With those two eliminations, Farrell stacked 8.13 million chips and had a massive advantage over Quenneville (1.55 million) going to the heads up “fight.”
The reason “fight” is in quotation marks is it took all of one hand to determine the champion. Farrell, playing big stack poker, pushed all in on the button and Quenneville found a hand he was ready to fight with in making the call. Quenneville’s K♠ J♠ was a solid opponent for Farrell’s A-5 off suit and it looked good for Quenneville when a King showed in the window of the flop. Unfortunately, an Ace was also there, keeping Farrell in the lead. When the turn and river failed to bring Quenneville another King or a Jack, the hand and the championship were firmly in Farrell’s grasp.
1. Niall Farrell, $335,000
2. Troy Quenneville, $220,000
3. Anthony Augustino, $140,000
4. Colin Moffatt, $105,392
5. Yiannis Liperis, $80,000
6. Stephen Woodhead, $66,000
