Carlos Mortensen, who had a great chiplead before the final table, went to everyone's surprise out on 5th place. Instead it came to be a battle between Tom McEvoy (1983 Main Event winner) and Robert Varkonyi (2002 Main Event Winner) in heads-up.
Tom McEvoy and Robert Varkonyi came to be the last men standing in the Champions Invitational tournament, which included 20 out of 36 players that have won the Main Event in World Series of Poker. Tom McEvoy was on second place as the final table begun. He had been playing great poker since the very beginning of the tournament and so he continued throughout the whole tournament. Even though he had a big chip lead as he was playing heads-up versus Robert Varkonyi, he really had to fight hard for the win as Robert Varkonyi played some amazing poker even though he was shorted stacked. Basically Varkonyi raised McEvoy quite a lot before the flop and then pushed all-in when the 3 community cards hit the table. This tactic worked quite well and he managed to build up his stack. But everything came to an end after this hand.....
Both players limped in to see the flop 7
5
8. Varkonyi bet 4,000 and McEvoy calls. The turn card 6 is a real action card as it's now very likely that someone has a straight or a flush. Varkonyi bet 8,000 and McEvoy makes it 16,000. Varkonyi then goes all-in, McEvoy calls straight away.
Both players show their cards
McEvoy 109
Varkonyi j5
Varkonyi only has a pair of 5's and is basically drawing dead with his 1 out for a straight flush against McEvoy's nut straight with a higher flush draw. No miracle when the k fell on the river and McEvoy takes home the tournament with a higher flush.
Final table results:
1. Tom McEvoy
2. Robert Varkonyi
3. Dan Harrington
4. Jim Bechtel
5. Carlos Mortensen
6. Huck Seed
7. Berry Johnston
8. Doyle Brunson
9. Peter Eastgate
10.Phil Hellmuth
