Kevin Grabel Wins Back-To-Back Big Stax Tournaments

Kevin Grabel has made history after winning back-to-back events at the Big Stax poker tournament series held at the Parx Casino in Pennsylvania. Each year, the series continues to grow in stature and this year’s Big Stax XVI was no exception with 3,261 players entering its $300, $500, and $1,100 marquee events to create a combined prize pool worth $1.6 million. Grabel subsequently went on to win both the Big Stax XVI 300 and the Big Stax XVI 500 tournaments to collect payouts of $78,450 and $43,000 respectively.
The $330 buy-in Big Stax drew a total of 1,548 players, and on the 6th day Grabel entered the final table of 10 in pole position. He then proceeded to eliminate five of his fellow competitors before eventually going heads-up against Mike Lavenburg for the title. The deciding hand then saw Grabel (3-2) and Mike Lavenburg (K-K) go all-in on a 5-3-2 flop, and with the turn and river producing a 4 and Q, Mike Lavenburg had to be content with a runner-up finish worth $49,633, while Grabel walked away with then event’s top prize of $78,450.
Final Table Result:
1: Kevin Grabel $78,450
2: Mike Lavenburg $49,633
3: James Labrie $32,338
4: Geno Raman $23,735
5: Alex Rocha $17,691
6: Daniel Conway $13,324
7: Andre Martin $10,324
8: Mike Snowman $7,853
9: Chris Farmer $6,177
Three days later, Grabel then entered the $550 buy-in Big Stax event, this time against a field consisting of 1,184 players. On Day 5, he then entered the final table of ten in 8th place, but eventually managed to move himself near to the top of the chip stacks by the time just eight players remained. A deal was then struck in which places 5th to 8th received payouts of $35,000 a piece, while the top four took home $43,000 each, with the official title also given to Grabel.
Final Table Result:
1: Kevin Grabel $43,000*
2: Gary Belyalovsky $43,000*
3: Josh Smith $43,000*
4: Bobby Oboodi $43,000*
5: Antonio Bueti $35,000*
6: Rishi Badlani $35,000*
7: Sumeet Wayachal $35,000*
8: Ephraim Uzan $35,000*
9: Charles Dang $8,411
As well as making Big Stax history, Kevin Grabel also notched up the second biggest score of his career, whilst boosting his live career earnings to $500,060. His biggest score came in 2014 at the $560 WPT World Championship in Atlantic City after finishing in 3rd place for $89,115.