The Parx Casino Big Stax IX has come to an end after 15 days of tournaments in the popular casino in Turnpike, Philadelphia. The tournament series included tournaments for both hobby players and the higher stake guys, with the Big Stax 1100 being the final event of the series.
A total of 276 players paid the $1,100 buy-in to participate, going for the first prize of $79,000 first prize. It took four days of play to find the winner, with two starting days and a day 2 and 3. The final table was played with 10 players, all going into the final table with around even stacks, between 1,000,000 and 1,600,000 in chips.
The players quickly began busting out, with the first being Dean Chen. Ken Silberstein finished in 9th, Stephen Benkovic in 8th, Richard Tuhrim in 7th, Joe McKeehen in 6th, Ronnie Bardah in 5th, Matt Glantz in 4th and Tom Midena in 3rd place, taking home $29,302 for his efforts.
The heads up duel was between Greg Himmelbrand who had 10,300,000 going into the duel and Kane Kalas who had 3,500,000. The duel would last an amazing five hours before finding a winner, which ended up being Kane Kalas after he managed to run down Himmelbrand.
The final hand of the day came when Himmelbrand went all-in with his last 1,400,000 chips and getting a call from Kalas.
Kalas shows:
Himmelbrand shows:
The dealer turns around the board which comes out
Kane Kalas with the Big Stax 1100 Trophy and his winning hand at the Casino Parx