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Noah Schwartz made the biggest score of his career by winning the WPT Alpha8 Florida on January 18th for $585,000. With this he most likely will be the biggest 6-max Sit & Go winner in 2015, since besides Schwartz, only five other players, Byron Kaverman, Jason Mercier, Jake Schindler, Bryn Kenney and Dan Colman registered for the event.
While a low number of entrants is not unusual for Super High Roller tournaments, the WPT Alpha8 Florida is most likely the smallest tournament ever to be held, only 6 players registered, and one of them, Dan Colman, even missed the beginning of the tournament.
The player count can be most likely explained by the fact that many professionals have barely come home from the PCA and some of them headed to Australia for the Aussie Millions side events straight away.
The six entrants were Noah Schwartz, Byron Kaverman, Jason Mercier, Jake Schindler, Bryn Kenney and Dan Colman.
The first player to bust was Bryn Kenney, he lost most of his stack early and didn't manage to get much going. On Level 5 (500-1,000-100 ante) he shoved 12.300 with A-9, Mercier called with A-Q and held up.
Mercier lost most of his stack in a hand where he minraised from UTG and was called by Colman on the button and Kaverman in the big blind. All three players checked the 5-3-2 flop then Kaverman led out on the 6 turn and was called by Mercier. The river was a 7 and Kaverman bet 20,500, Mercier tanked for a long time then called and Kaverman showed down 8-4 for a straight.
The next hand Mercier shoved his remaining 20,100 chips with A-9, was called by Schindler's A-6, and was eliminated as his opponent once again hit a straight on the J-7-4-6-5 board.
During Level 9, Schindler raised to 5,400 from the button then called Colman's shove of 40,400 with K-Q. Colman had A-5 and was eliminated when Schindler made top pair on the T-7-2-Q-J board.
During Level 10 (1,500-3,000-500 ante) Schwartz shoved from the small blind, Kaverman called all-in for 51,500 with A-5. The board came T-6-2-6-J and Kaverman was eliminated in fifth.
The two remaining players played heads-up until Level 12 (2,000-4,000-500 ante) before the day ended wit the following standings:
Noah Schwartz - 374,000
Jake Schindler - 226.500
On Day 2 they continued the battle, Schwartz managed to increase his lead and the tournament ended during Level 14 (4,000-8,000-1,000 ante) when Schindler shoved the button for 92,000 and Schwartz called.
Schindler showed K-5 suited while Schwartz had Q-9 suited. The board came Q-6-3-6-Q and Schwartz won the biggest score of his career with a full house.
Because of the low number of entrants, Schwartz took home the whole prizepool of $585,000 which is slightly better than his fourth place finish in last years WPT Alpha8 Las Vegas for which he got $539,550.