Matt Juttelstad Wins WPT Lucky Hearts For $268,444

Matt Juttelstad has won the WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open, after overcoming a field of 295 players, to lift the title and collect the $268,444 first place prize.
The total number of entries for the $3,500 buy-in tournament included around 44 re-entries, one of whom was Matt Juttelstad, who had previously busted on Day 1A. The young player from Winter Springs, Florida was only in town to attend an interview for a program at Florida Atlantic University in Miami, but after the interview finished early he decided to give the tournament another try on Day 1B.
It was fortunate that he did, as he then went on to boost his starting stack from 30k to 280k to finish Day 1B in pole position. Day 2 once again finished with him the chip leader (805k), and by the time the final table of six had been set on Day 3, Juttelstad (1.651m) was second only to Gigi Gagne (2.708m). The other contenders at the final table included Uri Kadosh (1.47m), Sharon Levin (1.208m), Keith Ferrera (1.094m) and Todd Jacobson (718k).
First to leave the arena was Keith Ferrera in 6th ($42,185), whose aggressive four-bet shove with Q-J foundered against the pocket nines of Juttelstad. He was then followed by Todd Jacobson in 5th ($54,649) and  Sharon Levin in 4th ($73,344), holding A-3 to Gigi Gagne’s A-10.
Subsequently, Uri Kadosh was eliminated in 3rd ($105,463) after being caught re-raising light and pushing his chips with J-8 into the A-J of Juttelstad, thus heraldingin he heads-up phase of the competition.
Last woman standing Gigi Gagne started out behind in chips by 3 to 1, and battled away for 30 hands before eventually shoving her straight with 4-10 on a 5-3-2-A board, only to discover her opponent was holding 6-4 for the higher straight. Gigi Gagne then collected $158,194 for her runner-up finish, while Matt Juttelstad was crowned the 2012 WPT Lucky Hearts Poker Open Champion.


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