Finance Professor Wins 2016 WSOP Monster Stack for $1,120,196

A total of 6,927 players entered WSOP Event #41: $1,500 No Limit Hold’em MONSTER Stack, with the huge field comprised of an eclectic mix of professional grinders, hopeful recreational players, as well as a plethora of amateurs players there to play for fun and soak up the atmosphere of the world’s most prestigious tournament series.
Even amongst the latter group, Mitchell Towner, an assistant professor of finance at the University of Arizona, stands out for his lack of card playing experience with the 33 year-old stating that that he “really don’t play poker.”
Nevertheless, Towner still managed to get the better of the massive field over five days of play, including defeating Venezuelan player Dorian Alejandro Rios Pavon heads-up, to capture a coveted gold bracelet, a feat which sometimes eludes even some of the game’s best pros.
The $1,500 No Limit Hold’em MONSTER Stack featured a prize pool of $9,351,450, with a 1,040th place finish worth $2,249. Amongst the notable pros then cashing in at the event was Ross Boatman in 118th ($7,352), Josh Arieh in 50th ($20,844), Donnacha O’Dea in 21st ($39,027), T.J. Cloutier in 14th ($61,598), and Matt Affleck in 10th ($78,264).
Towner then entered the final table in seventh place on a mere 12 big blind stack, but still managed to outlast such top pros as David Pham (5th), and Andrew Moreno (6th) to clinch the title. When asked how he managed to accomplish such an incredible feat, Towner replied:
“I just tried to play fairly straightforward. Everyone on my left was sort of a young wizard. So, I’m not going to be opening light or calling marginal spots. It seemed like people were liable to blast off occasionally, so I figured you never know, maybe I’ll get hit with a deck of cards and run really well.”
The young professor says he has no intentions to quit his job after winning more than a million dollars in Las Vegas, but he did say that some of his masters students are older than him, and so “maybe this will get me a little bit more respect.”
Final Table Results:
1: Mitchell Towner $1,120,196
2: Dorian Rios Pavon $692,029
3: Stephen Nussrallah $513,902
4: Daniel Dipasquale $384,338
5: David Pham $289,497
6: Andrew Moreno $219,632
7: David Valcourt-Dube $167,838
8: Marshall White $129,197
9: Cody Pack $100,185