Benton Blakeman Wins The PokerAtlas Tour Madness Kickoff Event At Resorts World

Benton Blakeman is primarily a cash-game participant, however he made one of many few occasions per 12 months he jumps right into a match a good selection when he took down the title within the PokerAtlas Tour Madness Kickoff occasion at Resorts World on the Las Vegas Strip. Blakeman was awarded $42,460 because the winner to take his profession match earnings as much as $274,421.

Blakeman chatted for an exit interview about his path to victory and match expertise right here on the PokerAtlas Tour shortly after the win, and here’s what he needed to say. “Oh man, it was tough. I’ve been playing cash in between so it’s been like four or five days straight of 12-13 hour days. I don’t play many tournaments so this is different. I maybe play three or four tournaments a year. I’m mainly a cash-game player at Bellagio,” stated Blakeman.

When he was requested about how he adjusted from his hours enjoying money to tournaments so shortly, Blakeman responded, “It all just depends, but I usually play four to 10 hours. Yesterday I played for 13 hours because there was a big game that was a crazy game for a while at Bobby’s Room at Bellagio and I couldn’t leave. I did Bobby’s Room, came here and played the tournament, and then I went back and played Bobby’s Room cash and came back here to finish the tournament today.”

The marathon path led to victory for Blakeman, and he had this to say about switching gears from money play to tournaments strategy-wise these previous few days. “I really never study tournaments, so what I did was play a lot of cash-game strategy. I just got lucky, I didn’t take a lot of bad beats. I’m less aggressive than the rest of them, because I’m so used to playing deep-stack cash where you see a lot of flops and you have a lot more wiggle room. I had to be very careful preflop, which maybe wasn’t right, but it worked out,” stated Blakeman.

When he approached the ultimate match heads up, Blakeman caught to his technique till he discovered the suitable spot to open issues up. “I approached it cautiously first just to see, but then when I found I was winning all the small pots I didn’t make big bluffs. But I kept stabbing at everything, and then finally a hand held up,” stated Blakeman.

Blakeman additionally has an in depth tie to the PokerAtlas Tour that helped encourage him to return out and assist his good friend Jon Friedberg. “Jon is one of my best friends. I used to play a cash game here that they would host twice a week, and Jon and I have been close since 2011 when he brought me in as head instructor for All Vegas Poker before he bought PokerAtlas, so I came out here to support him. I’ve been with Jon for a long time, about 15 years. So I came here to support him when I found out they were doing the PokerAtlas Tour and it worked out,” stated Blakeman to finish the interview.

The complete discipline of 526 entries constructed over six beginning flights within the $500 buy-in no-limit maintain’em match surpassed the assure of $200,000 for a complete prize pool price $220,920. There have been 45 gamers that returned for the ultimate day of the occasion.

The discipline reached the ultimate desk reasonably shortly just a bit after 7:00 pm from the 1:00 pm restart on the ultimate day of the match. Blakeman was in the midst of the pack when the ultimate desk started, however he was capable of rating a double up with eight gamers remaining to start out his rise to the highest.

He took out Wade Citro in fourth place to hitch competition for the chip lead, however by the point the heads-up remaining started he was going through a deficit towards Thomas Symonds. Blakeman started to drag into the lead, however then each gamers doubled up with Symonds ending up again within the lead after the mud settled.

Blakeman did begin successful many of the small pots with no showdowns nonetheless to take the benefit as soon as once more, so he was forward of Symonds when he received all in on the ultimate hand holding AJ. Blakeman had him lined and dominated with AQ within the gap, and the board bricked out for the queen-kicker to carry. Symonds was eradicated in second place for a payday price $29,860, and that received him as much as simply shy of $94,000 in match earnings.

Here is a have a look at the payouts and rankings factors awarded on the remaining desk:

The PokerAtlas Tour cease at Resort World will proceed till March 18th, with the $800 foremost occasion working from March 14-18. You can take a look at the complete schedule for the match collection proper right here.