The World Series of Poker Event #51, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack, has come to an end after five days of poker for the contestants going all the way to the final table. The tournament was the first of its kind and attracted an enormous crowd, which lead your thoughts towards thinking it was the actual main event of the WSOP.

A total of 7,862 players competed in the Monster Stack event, creating a massive prize pool of $10,613,700 that the players would split amongst them when they finish in the money. The tournament as a whole has been seen as a success due to the high attendance, massive prize pool and all the great poker that had been played. Many players agreed that this was like back in the golden days of poker and hope to see more tournaments like it in the future.

The tournament had two day one’s and a massive four days of play after that before we could reach the final table. None of the more famous players reached that far in the tournament, but that didn’t mean that the final table was boring, it was far from that. The players created good action and ensured that the rail enjoyed watching the final table for hours.

The last hand of the day came almost at the end of day five, where we had Joseph McKeehen playing against Hugo Pingray heads-up for the title. At this point Pingray is a 2:1 chipleader and has the momentum going for him. Blinds are 1,000,000/2,000,000 with an ante of 300,000.

Pingray raises to 4,000,000 from the button and McKeehen decides to push all-in for around 45,000,000. Pingray snap-calls the push and McKeehen knows that he is probably in trouble.

McKeehen showed:

Pingray showed:

 The dealer turns around the board  and with no help for McKeehen, he finishes in second place for $820,863. Pingray on the other hand could celebrate his first WSOP bracelet and a massive first prize of $1,327,083, which is by far the biggest cash the French has had so far in his career.

Final Table Payouts:

1. Hugo Pingray – $1,327,083
2. Joseph McKeehen – $820,863
3. Sean Drake – $619,521
4. Claas Segebrecht – $468,594
5. Thayer Rasmussen – $356,620
6. Lynne Beaumont – $273,090
7. Bobby Byram – $210,469
8. Zachary Gruneberg – $163,238
9. Joshua Hillock – $127,364