Brent Hanks Wins 2013 California State Poker Championship For $117,760
May 21, 2013 1:12 pmBrent Hanks has won the 2013 California State Poker Championship, after defeating a field of 258 players over three days to lift the title, and collect the $117,760 first place prize.
Brent Hanks has been cashing in at live tournaments since 2006, with his biggest victory to date coming last year at the $1,500 WSOP No Limit Hold’em event, which he won for $517,725. With the US pro’s latest victory in Los Angeles he now takes his live career earnings to $1,417,155.
The $2,080 Main Event took place at the Commerce Casino and attracted a good mixture of amateurs and pros alike to create a prize pool worth $500,520. Amongst the notable names entering the competition was Mimi Tran, Jeff Madsen, Barry Greenstein and Eric Baldwin.
By the time the Main Event reached its final table of nine, Brent Hanks was the chip leader on a 1.3m stack, followed by Daniel Park and Jesse Martin. At the other extreme, 2004 WSOP bracelet winner Gavin Griffin was the short stack at the table with just 163,000 in chips.
Nevertheless, Griffin mounted an impressive comeback to make it all the way down to heads-up play against Hanks, having busted Dong Tao in 5th, David Malka in 4th and then Park in 3rd. However, Gavin Griffin was unable to overcome his final hurdle and eventually found himself all-in preflop holding A-6 to his opponent’s A-9. The board subsequently fell 7-7-4-9-A to relegate Gavin Griffin to a runner-up finish worth $82,640, while Brent Hanks was crowned the champion. Following his remarkable victory, Hanks tweeted:
“@nhgg Such a fun heads up. Good game man—really happy we played and got to know each other a bit.”
“We won the California St championship and a golden bear worth 117K. Oh my. Time for whiskey petes. #leroy”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Brent Hanks $117,760
2 Gavin Griffin $82,640
3 Daniel Park $53,160
4 David Mallka $39,340
5 Dong Tao $29,530
6 Jesse Martin $23,620
7 Vardanyan $19,620
8 Ramzi Srour $15,720
9 Zhong Chen $11,760