Last of the ”Original Six” takes titleSTONE HARBOR, NJ - It took over four years, but that made Sass’ victory at the ECLVA Fall Classic that much sweeter. After winning last year’s Player of the Year and Rising Star awards, Sass finally has an MPT Championship to add to that collection. After finishing 2nd four times in seven events (and one 3rd place) last year and two 3rd place finishes this year, Sass bested a field of 9 seasoned MPT veterans to win the ECLVA Fall Classic.
The event started with TSS777 looking for the “Three-peat”, having won at Bally’s and making his trip to Las Vegas worthwhile by winning the event there but ended up hitting the rail early. It would be difficult in this field with 7 former champions in attendance, including last year’s ECLVA Fall Classic Champion, Syrorange3042.
Play started out as it usually does, with players avoiding to be out before the break. In a desperate move before the break, Harv29 pushed with Ah-Kh with just under half the starting chips and was eventually called by TSS777 with 8-8. The flop did not improve either player but a king on the turn helped Harv29 double up before the break.
Pixie made sure that the evening’s dinner would not be burnt by Rowanb’s inattentiveness by his tournament participation by eliminating him first. Betdponies followed him four minutes later, being eliminated by Harv29.
Four minutes seemed to be the magic number as TSS777 was eliminated by Bigfus, then Pixie hit the rail four minutes after him, being busted out by Harv29. It took another eleven minutes before Ghosthunter was busted out by Syrorange3042, but he could not hold on and was bubbled out by Bigfus eight minutes later.
That left Bigfus, Harv29 and Sass in the money. Bigfus had a nice chip lead on the others with Sass being the short stack. Harv29 survived elimination with A-9 against Bigfus’ A-K with a friendly 9 on the flop. However his 5-5 could not hold up against Sass’ A-9 and he doubled the eventual champion. On the very next hand Harv29 pushed his remaining chips with 5-5 again, and this time Sass had A-Q, which hit again, sending Harv29 out in 3rd place.
The heads up battle only lasted 6 minutes with Sass eventually taking the championship.
Sass is having another successful campaign, cashing in 3 of 4 events and bubbling in the other, however with his back-to-back victories, TSS777 remains atop of the Player of the Year standings, with a 3 point lead over Bigfus. Sass trails by 9 points with Harv29 down by 15.
With her victory, Sass takes over the career points lead with 167, 3 points over Harv29 and 6 points over Bigfus. She vaults into third place in career cashes, behind leader TSS777 and second place Bigfus.
There is still plenty of time for some players to catch up to the PoTY leader, TSS777 with two events before the Main Event in December.
The results:
- Sass
- Bigfus
- Harv29
- Syrorange3042
- Ghosthunter
- Pixie
- TSS777
- Betdponies
- RowanB
