Isaac Haxton takes down Short Deck event at Poker Masters

The debuting event generated 55 entries, many of which played the new format for the first time ever.

"I played my first hand of Short Deck yesterday,"

Only six players returned to the final table of the $10,000 Short Deck event, lead by German phenom, Dominik Nitsche. But Dom wasn't the only familiar face at the table as it was filled exclusively with high-profile players. The list of the finalists included Maurice Hawkins, Ryan Tosoc, Andrew Robl, Cary Katz in addition to the two high-stakes crushers, mentioned before. Despite their long history of success at the tables, only Andrew Robl has experience at the newest poker craze, as he's been grinding the Short Deck games in the middle-east for a long time.

Even though he started with the chip lead, Nitsche was the first to bust in the high-variance game. He was shortly followed by PokerCentral founder, Cary Katz. The two high-roller regular earned, $33,000 and $44,000 respectively.

Robl's experience surely helped him, making the final table, but he eventually had to settle for 4th place, despite (probably) being the best Short Deck player at the table. The cash game specialist left in 4th place with $55,000 to his name. It took the remaining three more than an hour to reduce to two.

Ryan Tosoc put his last chips into the middle, holding Ace-ten which were no good against the superior Ace-jack of Haxton's. Ryan left the table to pick up $77,000 at the cage.

Hawkings took the lead at the beginning of the duel, but Ike was able to win some pots, to reclaim the chip lead. However, Maurice's relentless play and table talk helped him turn things around and all of a sudden, Ike was all-in for his tournament life, with the second best hand. His Ace-ten was behind the pocket queens of his opponent's, but an Ace on the turn turned the table and it was Haxton, who scooped the major pot, leaving Hawkins with very few chips.

It's hard to tell, but Maurice probably lost this hand

Ike eventually closed out the whole thing, busting Maurice with two par to take down the first-ever Short Deck tournament in the US and add $176,000 to his bankroll. Runner-up, Hawkins walked away with $115,000.

"I played my first hand of Short Deck yesterday," Haxton said after the win. "As the blinds got higher, I started to learn a little more and I was just all in a lot over the last thirty hands."

Final results

This was the third final table for the GTO-wizz, which helped him close the gap between him and Purple Jacket Rankings leader, Brandon Adams. Ike has now 480 points, while Brandon still sits on top with 510 points.

Purple Jacket Rankings