Shariati was denied his second title of the season, but earned $656,540 and took a sizeable lead in the Hublot WPT Player of the Year race. With four events remaining before the winner is crowned, Shariati now sits with 2,400 points and Cate Hall is his closest competitor with 1,550.
Heading into the final table, Fast was near the bottom of the chip counts, sitting in fifth place of six players. He won a big pot off of Anthony Spinella, the chip leader at the start of the day, by turning a set of aces against Spinella’s top two pair. Fast jumped right into the mix and never looked back from there.
While Fast’s stack was growing, it was Spinella’s stack that quickly moved in the wrong direction. about losing about half of his stack from the day’s start, he doubled up Alex Keating when his ace-king lost to Keating’s pocket threes. He was left with just seven big blinds and was eliminated shortly thereafter.
Farid Jattin came into the day second in chips behind Spinella, but was the second player to hit the rail, eventually exiting the final table in fifth place. Jattin’s chip stack remained fairly stagnant for most of the day, and he found himself all in with 9-8 against Keating’s pocket aces. Jattin flopped an eight, but couldn’t find any more help from the dealer and Keating sent Jattin home with a fifth place finish.
Four-handed play only lasted for 22 hands, and then in the blink of an eye it was down to Fast and Shariati. On hand #70, Sam Soverel missed his straight draw and moved all in on the river with just five-high. After spending several minutes in the tank, Fast called with pocket jacks and Soverel was eliminated in fourth place.
On the very next hand, Fast and Keating got all the chips in the middle preflop with Keating showing ace-queen and Fast tabling ace-king. There wasn’t much of a sweat as Fast flopped a king to leave Keating drawing to running cards to make trips or a straight. Keaitng found a queen on the turn, but couldn’t find a miracle on the river to leave Fast heads-up with Shariati.
Fast began heads-up play with about a 4-to-1 chip lead and he never relinquished it. Shariati cut the chip lead to just 2-to-1, but Fast finished him off the next time that all the money got in. Fast’s ace-nine held up against Shariati’s ace-eight on a board of A-J-4-8-J to secure the title for the German.
Here are a look at the final table results:
1. Dietrich Fast – $1,000,800
2. Mike Shariati – $656,540
3. Alex Keating – $423,890
4. Sam Soverel – $316,440
5. Farid Jatten – $238,070
6. Anthony Spinella – $191,250
The 2016 California Swing continues on Monday with Day 1A of the WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star, then continues on March 12 with WPT Rolling Thunder. The World Poker Tour live updates team will be on hand for both events to bring you hands, chip counts, and photos straight from the tournament floor.
Source: WPT.com
