Pat Lyons Wins WPT Legends of Poker
Written by
Pete - Friday, September 2, 2016,
Live poker
California journeyman Pat Lyons more than doubled his career earnings last night as he took down the WPT Legends of Poker $4,000 main event for $615,346.
Lyons who likes to modestly call himself "World Famous Pat Lyons" is at least a little close to living up to his self-imposed nickname after capturing his first WPT title at Thursday's final table.
Lyons started the final six in second place behind 77 crowd favourite William Vo and sat there or thereabouts for most of the final table, taking the lead on numerous occasions. Despite chipping up throughout the tournament Lyons didn't get involved in the early eliminations which were all taken care of by 2015 WSOP bracelet winner Upeshka De Silva who busted Brazlian youngster Rafael Oliveira after just seven hands when Oliveira's Jacks were bested by De Silva's trip sixes.
Despite starting the day as chip leader, Vo was next to fall after making a hero-call with AK high. Once again De Silva was the slayer with his pair of Jacks. While Lyons steadily chipped up, taking the lead again before the next elimination, it was once again De Silva who took the next scalp eliminating Todd Peterson in dramatic fashion. All in pre-flop with AQ vs 10 10 De Silva was ahead pre-flip. A Queen on the flop put Peterson well in front but De Silva hit his 2-outer on the river to make a set of tens.
Although De Silva had been making all the headlines at the final table he didn't make it to heads-up play and after a lengthy three-handed battle with Lyons and WSOP bracelet winner Benjamin Zamani, the most successful of the players to reach the final table with over $3.2m in live tourney winnings prior to this tournament. It was Lyons who put paid to De Silva's chances when his Q 10 luckily hit a Q on the river after he went all-in preflop against De Silva's pocket Jacks.
Lyons started heads-up play with a 2:1 lead and it wasn't a long affair with Lyons wrapping up the tournament after 18 hands when his dominating A8 made an unecessary straight against Zamani's A2. Zamani collected $341,412 for his second WPT runners-up finish on the bounce after he won $412k in July's WPT Choctaw main event.
It's been a hell of a summer for Lyons who is fresh off his previous biggest ever score when he took down the $1k Arizone State Championship last month for $241k. Despite having live cashes dating back to 2004 on his resume this latest win means that over 73% of Lyons total live tourney earnings of $1,169,279 have come in the last 3 weeks.
WPT Legends of Poker Final Table
|
Player |
Winnings |
1 |
Pat Lyons |
$615,346 |
2 |
Benjamin Zamani |
$341,412 |
3 |
Upeshka De Silva |
$198,720 |
4 |
Todd Peterson |
$149,715 |
5 |
William Vo |
$113,105 |
6 |
Rafael Oliveira |
$85,760 |
7 |
Jeremy Kottler |
$66,895 |
8 |
Garrett Greer |
$52,190 |
9 |
David Pham |
$39,940 |