Canadian online and live tourney poker pro Mike ‘SirWatts’ Watson (31) has triumphed in the 2016 Pokerstars Caribbean Adventure main event, besting a field of 927 other players and a talented final table to claim the lion’s share of the prize pool.
The $5,300 buy-in NLHE event saw Watson holding the chip lead as he entered the final day against six survivors that included highly experienced players like Vladimir Troyanovsky, Toby Lewis and Tony Gregg.
He managed to retain the lead for much of the action, reaching the heads up stage against Gregg with a chip stack of almost 18 million vs. Gregg’s 9.8 million, but agreeing to negotiate a chop which gave him $695,325, Gregg $612,175 and left $33,000 and the title on the table for the winner.
The spoils divided, the two professionals went to work in a tough battle that was to last for 71 hands. It saw the chip leadership reverse at one stage before Watson was able to regain and keep the advantage to eliminate his opponent and claim the main prize of $728,325, boosting his career earnings over the $9 million mark.
Gregg’s sterling effort was rewarded by the already agreed $612,175, and the rest of the final table cashes looked like this:
Phillip McAllister $356,020
Toby Lewis $267,340
Vladimir Troyanovsky $207,940
Randy Kritzer $153,920
Ken Demlakian $110,220
Timothy Ulmer $78,540