Wednesday, May 14, 2008

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Keith Wintermans wins WPTC Coast 2 Coast

By Sean Lind

The first WPT Canada (WPTC) main event tournament has come to close, with Vancouver local Keith Wintermans taking home the novelty oversized first-place check.

A total of 302 players were seated on Day 1 of the $3,000 buy-in main event, with $15,000 starting chip stacks, hour-long blinds and a prize pool worth over $845,000.

The large prize-pool deep-stack tournament brought plenty of big names out to play including WPT Season IV Player of the Year Gavin Smith, Canadian Poker Tour Player of the Year "Yukon" Brad Booth, Jody Trainer, Antonio Esfandiari and 2007 Mandalay Bay WPT Champion Shawn Buchanon.

After 18 hours of play on Day 2, the six-person final table was set.

Play at the final table lasted close to eight hours, including a lengthy heads-up match. In the final hand the flop came K-9-6 with two clubs.

After the dealer turned a third club, the two players got it all-in, Keith showing K-9 for top two pair against his opponent's K-5 with the five of clubs for a flush draw.

The river was a five which missed the flush, giving Keith the pot, the chips and a first-place finish.

After finishing in seventh place at last year's televised Johnny Chan Poker Classic, Wintermans was elated to claim a victory from the very same room in his hometown one year later. When asked what he's going to do with his winnings, he shrugged, replying, "I'll put most of it away for a rainy day."

Wintermans has cashed in three WSOP events and made multiple Canadian final tables so it wouldn't be surprising to see him make some waves in Las Vegas during the upcoming 2008 WSOP. He certainly has the bankroll to get there now.

The final-table payout structure:

Place	Player	Payout
1st	Keith Wintermans	$224,100
2nd	Patrick McCaw	$139,545
3rd	Tyler Hamade	$86,675
4th	Chris Chang	$71,875
5th	Tyler Patterson	$56,655
6th	Nigel Vonas	$46,510

Related Article:

• Coast to Coast Poker Championship begins tomorrow
• Poker goes coast to coast at Canadian poker championship

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