The 2017 Caribbean Poker Party Festival commenced on 17th November in Punta Cana, the Dominican Republic. The grandiose event wrapped up yesterday with Sam Greenwood finding himself with a boosted bankroll. A few days after Sam Greenwood almost nabbed a big win, but had to console himself with 3rd place in the $10,300 High Roller and 2nd place in the $25,500 Super High Roller, the Canadian poker heavyweight won the first-place prize of $1,000,000 in the $5,300 MILLIONS Main Event.
On Saturday evening, Greenwood lifted the long-coveted title and the second biggest live cash in his career that surpassed $6 million in live earnings. His fantastic performance keeps the poker community talking as he appeared to be on quite a heater in the 2017 Caribbean Poker Party Festival.
The $5,300 MILLIONS Main Event featured 3 starting flights drew a total of 1,061 entries at Meliá Caribe Tropical. The event turned into a shoe-in that smashed the guaranteed prize pool to create a lucrative prize pool of $5,145,850 that was distributed to the first 111 finishers. They were all guaranteed at least $10,000. Kevin Eyster was the unfortunate bubble soul, who left the tournament empty-handed.
Sam Greenwood Marches to Victory
Only 12 players showed up on Sunday for the final day of play. Greenwood bagged the chip lead to lead the pack of survivors into the final day of the event. The action unveiled at a rapid pace. Michael Malm was the first player to walk through the door. He entered the final day on fumes and his elimination came as no surprise. Ruben Perceval was the next to be knocked out in 11th place. The popular Jason Koon was also busted out in 10th place and his executioner was Jonas Gjelstad.
The remaining 9 players had the challenging task to set the official final table. The only Canadian player, who managed to enter the official final table was Sam Greenwood. After nearly 3 hours of play, Damian Lomza was the first to leave the final table. The final table play was a roller coaster to all the players. By the time the field was further trimmed to just 4 players, Greenwood and his eventual heads-up opponent Andrey Shatilov from Russia were hovering near the top of the chip counts. Greenwood and Shatilov applied intense pressure on Jiri Horak and Jonas Gjelstad, who exited the game in 4th and 3rd place respectively.
That left Greenwood heads up with Shatilov. Shatilov started out as the chip leader by a good margin. He created an emporium of chips worth 598 million against Greenwood’s 449 million. However, Greenwood won after outlasting Shatilov in a grueling, three-hour heads-up duel. The last hand of the tournament was a big sweat for both players.
Greenwood opened action by raising to 24 million pre-flop. Andrey Shatilov called and the two players saw the board run out [8s][6s][4h] on the flop. Greenwood bet 20 million and his opponent called again. The [3d] appeared on the turn and Greenwood raised again to 100 million. At this moment, Shatilov provoked his opponent in an all-in confrontation, turning over [9c][8c] to confront with his opponent’s [Kh][Kd]. The [5d] arrived on the river to secure, giving Greenwood the winning hand. Shatilov left in 2nd place with a sizeable payout of $650,000.
