The 31-year-old from St. John's is aiming to become the third Canadian PCA champion. He's #5 in his nation's all-time money list and had a blast yesterday. Watson secured a huge double against Leonardo Pires, Brazilian Day 2, 3 & 4 chip leader and eventually knocked him out in 13th place. While Pires bust shy of the final table, Watson's stack soared up top. Having numerous EPT High Roller results under his belt, "SirWatts" is enjoying his first EPT Main Event final table appearance. He bagged 6,585,000 tonight.
If anyone could be considered a PCA Main Event final table regular, that would be Tony Gregg. The American pro from Maryland has now completed a hattrick, previously making the top eight at both 2009 & 2012 PCA Main Events (no other player has more than one final table from here). Seven years ago, Gregg came close to win the PCA but eventually lost to earlier mentioned Poorya Nazari heads-up. Although Gregg banked $1.7 million for the runner-up finish, it's not his career's best one as he took down the 2013 WSOP $111k One Drop High Roller for $4.8 million.
In 2012, Gregg was sixth in the PCA Main Event and he'll at least match that result this time. He's very likely to get better outcome, bagging the second biggest stack for the finale - 5,690,000.
Third in chips, Vladimir Troyanovskiy also completed a hattrick, although in a different perspective than Gregg: The 42-year-old Russian has been second in the $25k High Roller and seventh in the $100k High Roller before, and we'll see him today playing for the title. Russia's #5 in the all-time money list has 5,025,000.
Two English players are still in contention and one of them has already been crowned as a EPT champion. Toby "810ofclubs" Lewis won in Vilamoura back in Season 7 and is the only player left in the field with a EPT title under his belt. Lewis has 4,665,000 and will sit on the left of his fellow countryman Phill "Grindation" McAllister.
Aged 22, McAllister is the youngest player among the final six. However, he's played tons of hands online. He's nearly $900k in profit on PokerStars. McAllister will pick up his first EPT Main Event cash today. He'll start the final day with 3,040,000.
Randy Kritzer is the only amateur player on the final table. The 58-year-old is specialist in neurosurgery and his best result before entering PCA 2016 was just $14k. Kritzer played only the Main Event here and had to rebook his flights back to North Carolina thanks to this deep run. With 2,565,000 in the bag, Kritzer will start the final day short stacked.
All six remaining players are guaranteed $153,920 but it's the juicy $833,260 first prize they certainly look for as well as the title and a coveted trophy. The PCA Main Event attracted 928 entries overall creating a $4,500,800 prize pool divvied up 135 places.
PCA 2016 Main Event Final Day seat draw:
Seat 1: Mike Watson, Canada, PokerStars player - 6,585,000
Seat 2: Vladimir Troyanovskiy, Russia, PokerStars qualifier, 5,025,000
Seat 3: Randy Kritzer, USA, 2,565,000
Seat 4: Tony Gregg, USA, PokerStars player, 5,690,000
Seat 5: Phillip McAllister, UK, PokerStars player, 3,040,000
Seat 6: Toby Lewis, UK, PokerStars player, 4,665,000
Source: EPT Press
