Heartland Poker Tour Main Event finds a winner

Wendy Freedman is no slouch at the felt. She has two WSOP Circuit rings, two WSOP final table appearances and a number of cashes at tournaments around the US. She just improved her résumé this week when she wiped out the Heartland Poker Tour (HPT) Black Hawk Main Event in Colorado, picking up an additional $167,696. Freedman has now tipped the scales and has picked up over $1 million in live action, according to Hendon Mob.

With the win, Freedman became only the second woman to ever win a HPT Main Event title, and the first to do so within the past five years. Her most recent tournament final table was this past May, when she finished fourth at the #365 NLHE event as part of the WSOP Circuit in New Orleans.

The Main Event attracted 496 entries – not a bad turnout for a tournament with a buy-in of $1,650. Cord Garcia, who has twice taken down the event, cashed, but couldn’t make it to Day 2. Likewise, Chris Tryba and Ben Keeline weren’t able to find Lady Luck and fell in 41st and 21st place, respectively.

As the final nine players sat down to battle for the win, Freedman was sitting on the biggest stack of chips at the table. It wouldn’t take long for players to start hitting the rail, beginning with Carl Oman. Rich Alsup followed next after Chris Barrett wiped out most of his stack. Barrett, who was the short stack going into the hand, doubled thanks to Alsup, who was left with only 20 big blinds. Freedman stole his diminished stack soon after when she scored a turn flush to beat Alsup’s pair of Aces.