James Mackey wins WPT Choctaw for $666,758

A total of 1,066 players, mostly Americans, travelled to Choctaw, Oklahoma to participate in the $3,500 World Poker Tour Championship Event. They created a total prizepool of $3,619,070 with $666,758 for the eventual winner. After a long and hefty final table, James Mackey was too strong for his opponents and took home the victory.

The final table of six started with the following line-up:

After an hour of play, Matthew Smith shoves his last 15 big blinds to the middle with , but he needed help against Duong’s . He didn’t get the wanted help on a board of and was eliminated in sixth place for $134,720.

More than an hour later, Mackey scored a huge double when his pair of kings held against the flushdraw of Duong, who was left with only 2 big blinds. One hand later he lost his remaining chips against Varnell and ended in fifth for $175,122.

Fisher, the chipleader at the beginning of the final table, couldn’t win a hand. Eventually he shoved his ace-eight into Varnell’s Q’s, and after a board of he could walk to the cashier to collect his $230,300.

Zamani started the three-way play as the shortstack, but managed to survive a couple of all-in situations, causing him to make another moneyjump, as Varnell’s ace-seven didn’t improve against Mackey’s 9’s.

In the 134^th hand of the tournament, Zamani had all his chips in the middle as a huge underdog. Zamani had shoved with , but Mackey held the , and after the board ran out , Mackey secured his win and his first WPT-title.

The payouts: