Pat Steele Wins 2013 Heartland Poker Tour Michigan
May 22, 2013 12:13 pmPat Steele has won the 2013 Heartland Poker Tour Michigan, after defeating a field of 462 players over four days to lift the title, and collect the $155,636 first place prize.
The $1,500 NL tournament created a prize pool worth $ 622,280 and attracted a whole slew of amateurs and pros alike to the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort, Mount Pleasant. Amongst the notable names competing in the competition was Greg “FossilMan” Raymer, “Cowboy” Mike Harris, Dash Dudley, and Craig Casino, all of whom failed to cash. Coming away with some reward for their efforts was Bruce Swart (44th for $3,576), Stan Jablonski (37th for $3,576) and Elliot Hebden (18th for $6,358).
By the time the final table of nine had been reached, one big name still remained in the guise of the 2009 WSOP Main Event winner Joe Cada, who exclaimed at the time; “Winning the HPT title would mean a lot. You play a tournament to win.” The 25 year old pro was then dealt A-10 and proceeded to eliminate Rudy (2-2) Ballard in 6th for $25,167, but in the end could only make it as far as a 4th place finish ($43,710) when his A-7 fell to the A-9 of Tom Midena.
Following last woman standing Penelope Banhidy’s exit in 3rd for $62,917, the heads-up phase of the competition then got underway between Pat Steele and Tom Midena. A mere 22 hands later and it was all over with Steele’s A-7 defeating his opponent’s J-9, with the board having rolled out K-8-8-7-Q. Nevertheless, Tom Midena was quick to praise the Heartland Poker Tour, and commented
“HPT has been great. They probably have one of the best structures out there for poker tours.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Pat Steele $155,636
2 Tom Midena $96,031
3 Penelope Banhidy $62,917
4 Joe Cada $43,710
5 Adam Bacon $32,452
6 Rudy Ballard $25,167
7 Mark Davis $21,789
8 Sai Mudduluru $17,882
9 Phung Ngo $14,570