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Playing hooky earned 20 years old Will Pengelly $250,000!
"I think of tournaments kind of like the lottery. Many people enter and one player wins a lot of money. Today, that happened to be me."
Will started playing cash games at WinStar, after turning 18 and has been a grinder of those games since than. Despite his low opinion on tournaments, he decided to play the $2,500 Main Event at the WinStar River Poker Series and it turned out to be a great decision. He even had to skip class at University of North Texas, but the $249,310 prize he took home after a five-way deal seems like a fair compensation.
Will started the day pretty bad, losing two major pots with Queen-ten suited, both times failing to hit his combodraws. However, the third time he got there on the river to double up against start-of-day chipleader, Johnny Deas to rebuild his stack. Pengelly managed to bust the former chipleader shortly after. Deas shoved on a jack-high flop with pocket fives, only to get snapcalled by the top set of Will's. Deas made $46,060 for finishing 8th.
Nebraska's Jeff Banghart then knocked out both Alan Cummins (7th; $58,580) and Matthew Bray (6th; $75,440) so the field got down to the final five. At this point the players decided to look at the numbers for a possible deal.
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After seeing ICM numbers they came to an agreement, which earned Pengelly the title and the $249,310 top prize, while Ekrem Bozkurt got $215,170, Banghart $206,570, Ricky Green $204,710 and Dean Baranowski $144,000.
Final results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Will Pengelly | United States | $249,310* |
| 2nd | Ekrem Bozkurt | United States | $215,170* |
| 3rd | Jeff Banghart | United States | $206,570* |
| 4th | Ricky Green | United States | $205,710* |
| 5th | Dean Baranowski | United States | $144,000* |
| 6th | Matthew Bray | United States | $75,440 |
| 7th | Alan Cummins | United States | $58,580 |
| 8th | Johnny Deas | United States | $46,060 |
| 9th | Brian Green | United States | $36,640 |
*Denotes a five-way deal.
This is the Will's first recorded tournament score, but the sweet success might make him change his mind regarding tournaments. When asked about his future plans, he said: "I really want to buy a nice car but it will most likely be going into the bank. Yeah, I will certainly be going there [to the WSOP] to check things out."