Max Young Wins 2018 MSPT Golden Gates

On April 12th, the Mid-States Poker Tour (MSPT) made its ninth annual stop at the Golden Gates Casino in Black Hawk, Colorado, with 468 players entering its Main Event to create a prize pool $154,930 in excess of its $300,000 guarantee. Four days of action later, and the tournament was eventually won by Max Young for $97,810, after which he had nothing but praise to express for the tour geared towards recreational players, stating:
“All the people I’ve met are great. I only have good things to say. I’m traveling the circuit a lot, just trying to find events within my buy-in range that I think I’ll do well in. The MSPTs are right there; I like them a lot.”
Max Young
Max Young now increases his career earnings to $746,027, placing him at number 13 on Oregon’s ‘All Time Money List’, with Annie Duke currently topping the list on $4,270,548. In 2017, Max Young also earned his biggest score to date after taking down the $1,675 WSOP Circuit Lake Tahoe Main Event for $147,699, helping to make last year his best to date with $443,524 in winnings. Before his win in Colorado, however, Young had won just $58,795 in 2018, and commenting after his latest victory, the 33 year-old poker pro said:
“I feel pretty good, not gonna lie. It’s been awhile; I’ve been on a little dry spell the past few months. The year started off great and then I just couldn’t put anything together, so it feels pretty good to have a big result that turns my year around.”
MSPT Main Event Cashes
The MSPT Golden Gates Main Event paid 54 money places, and amongst the players seeing a return on their $1,100 buy-ins was Aaron Thomas in 54th ($2,047), Phil Mader in 49th ($2,047), Keith Block in 36th ($2,457), Svetlana Martie in 21st ($4,140), Mike Maruna in 19th ($4,140), Dash Dudley in 17th ($4,549) and Danny Gonzalez in 13th ($5,459).
Final Table
Bryan Robinson subsequently entered the final table of ten as the chip leader, with the most recognizable pros still in contention including WSOP bracelet winners Adam Friedman and Ben Keeline, and 7-times WSOPC winner Vincent Moscati. Interestingly, Friedman almost eliminated Young when just two tables remained after his pocket nines preflop shove got lucky against the pocket jacks of Young, in the process reducing him to a short stack.
“Losing that hand was crushing because I thought that was my chance,” explained Young said. “I was left with less than 10 big blinds. I managed to come back and things started to go my way, especially at the final table. Monster hands came to me and I smashed everything.”
This included Young (A-A) eliminating both Daniel Sochacki (3-3) and Adam Friedman (A-10) in 9th and 8th place respectively in a three way hand that produced a 6-5-7-K-Q board.
Ben Keeline exited soon after in 7th place, after which Young sent Ian Sylvester to the rail in 6th. Continuing his run, Young (8c-6c) called Moscati’s (Qd-9d) check shove on a Qc-5c-10c flop to knock him out in 4th, before being dealt A-K and doing likewise to Sammy Aweida (K-J) in 3rd to force heads-up play against Jeff Heiberg for the title.
Heads-Up
Max Young entered heads-up play holding 95% of the chips still in play, and soon after the deciding hand was played with Heiberg shoving on the button holding Ad-3h and Young making the call with As-Qh. The dealer then laid out a Jc-Ac-Kd-8h-5h board to consign Heiberg to a runner-up finish worth $60,097, in the process increasing his career earnings to $361,003, while the MSPT Golden Gates trophy was awarded to Young for his impressive performance.
Final Table Results
1: Max Young $97,810
2: Jeff Heiberg $60,097
3: Sammy Aweida $43,309
4: Vincent Moscati $32,755
5: Bryan Robinson $24,566
6: Ian Sylvester $18,652
7: Ben Keeline $14,558
8: Adam Friedman $11,373
9: Daniel Sochacki $8,644
10: Aaron Frei $6,824