Jason Brin Wins 2015 WPT Choctaw Main Event For $682,975
August 6, 2015 11:25 amA huge field of 1,175 players turned out for the inaugural World Poker Tour Choctaw main event to create a prize pool worth $3,989,125. Five days of action later, and it would be Jason Brin who emerged atop the field to capture the competition’s prestigious title, as well as its $682,975 first-place prize.
The $3,700 WPT Main Event was held at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, and attracted some of the most talented pros in the game. Amongst the 145 players who subsequently saw a return on their buy-ins was Mike Leah in 39th ($17,484), Scotty Nguyen in 32nd ($20,266), Bryn Kenney in 19th ($30,995), Vince van Patten in 14th ($40,532), Erik Seidel in 12th ($50,466),and Jared Jaffee in 7th ($112,854).
By the time the final table of six had been reached, last woman standing Cosima ‘Mina’ Greco was the short-stack at the table, followed by Kansas carpet store owner Jason Brin. Also competing for the title was 2013 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open winner Andy Hwang, 2-times WPT winner Darren Elias, Jake Schindler with more than $4 million in live career earnings, and Australian player Alexander Lynskey.
Seventy-one hands later, Jason Brin (Q-J) eliminated a short-stacked Lynskey (A-10) from the tournament in 6th for $135,504. Meanwhile, Andy Hwang (K-K) did likewise to Mina Greco (J-9) in 5th ($167,691), before being dealt A-8 and taking care of Jake Schindler (4-4) in 4th ($224,913). Continuing his final table assault, Hwang (K-10) dispatched Darren Elias (Q-10) to the rail in 3rd ($303,593) to herald in heads-up play against Jason Brin.
As the final battle commenced, Hwang had almost twice the chips of his remaining opponent, but before long Brin managed to take the lead with the deciding hand eventually played after Brin moved all (K-8) preflop and was called by Hwang with Q-J. The dealer subsequently laid out a 4-3-2-5-10 board to consign Andy Hwang to a runner-up finish worth $468,105, while Jason Brin collected $682,975 to boost his live career earnings to $772,852. Commenting on his victory, the 42 year-old said:
“What’s better than the championship itself is the support from all of you. I melted when the last card landed. You will see on the show that the audience started taking a liking to me, they knew I was the underdog to all the professional players. I cracked numerous jokes and one liners to the crowd. By the end of the night they were chanting ‘Rudy, Rudy’ in relation to that movie.”
1 Jason Brin – $682,975
2 Andy Hwang – $468,105
3 Darren Elias – $303,593
4 Jake Schindler – $224,913
5 Mina Greco – $167,691
6 Alex Lynskey – $135,504