Lucky Break Sees Edwards Muniz Win WPTDeepStacks Hollywood

William Muniz won the WPTDeepstacks Hollywood event for $228,717, but it could have been a different story. A fortunate turn of events saw Muniz play a different starting flight and bag the chip lead. He went on to outlast 1,403-opponents to secure his largest-ever tournament score.

WPTDeepStacks Hollywood Final Table Results

Place	Player	Prize
1	William Muniz	$228,717 includes a $3,000 Championship package
2	Jason Block	$159,206
3	Peter Fellows	$103,316
4	Brian Metter	$76,627
5	Trung Pham	$57,739
6	Howard Mash	$46,596
7	Alcides Gomez	$38,348
8	Justin Bianco	$30,276
9	Aaron Rosenthal	$22,571

Muniz was scheduled to give a deposition in Jacksonville last Friday, but that changed. He received a phone call while driving from Tampa to Jacksonville informing him the case had been settled. Muniz planned to play WPTDeepStack Hollywood anyway so continued on his journey.

The Florida native bought into Day 1B instead of 1C because he arrived a day earlier than anticipated. Things went well and he bagged up the chip lead, giving him a day off before Day 2. Muniz decided to enter the $400 buy-in Big O Omaha event instead of enjoying a rest day. It turned out to be a good decision because he chopped it three-way and banked $7,310. It’s funny how life works, sometimes.

Money Places Reached on Day 2

The 1,404-entrants were whittled to a more manageable 273 over the course of three Day 1s. Only 177 of those returning players received prize money for their efforts. This tournament’s money bubble burst on two separate tables, meaning the players split a $1,495 min-cash.

Jaspal Brar and Nissim Vaknin busted at the same hand on different tables to pop the money bubble.

High profile players including Robert Mizrachi, Kathy Liebert, Darryll Fish, and Jake Schwartz cashed. Nick Palma fell in 10th place for $17,081 to bring the curtain down on Day 2 proceedings.

WPTDeepStacks Hollywood Final Table Set

Muniz was the shortest stack of the WPTDeepStacks Hollywood final nine while Trung Pham held the chip lead.

The first elimination occurred less than an hour into play. Aaron Rosenthal open-shoved nine big blinds with queen-jack and Muniz looked him up with pocket eights. An eight on the turn left Rosenthal drawing dead and reduced the player count by one.

Justin Bianco busted in eighth-place. Bianco lost a huge pot to Brian Metter when he pushed king-queen into pocket aces. He was all-in from the big blind on the next hand and lost his tiny stack to Howard Mash.

Seventh-place and $38,348 went to Alcides Gomez who banked his largest-ever prize. The action folded to Gomez on the button and he moved all-in for 14 big blinds with king-jack. Peter Fellows re-shoved from the small blind with pocket jacks. Those jacks held to eliminate Gomez.

Muniz Claims Chip Lead at WPTDeepStacks Hollywood Final Table

Muniz claimed the chip lead as play entered the short-handed phase and became the first player with 10 million chips. It was a dominant position, but there was still a lot of work to do.

Mash’s tournament ended courtesy of him running his queen-ten into the dominating ace-ten of Pham. Pham paired his ace on the flop to bust Mash in sixth-place.

Those chips weren’t put to good use because Pham fell by the wayside a few hands later. Pham was all-in for less than seven big blinds on the button and Jason Block looked him up. Block showed king-nine, Pham ace-seven and a king on the river saw the players get some more elbow room.

The final four-figure prize of the WPTDeepStacks Hollywood event went to Metter. A battle of the blinds saw Metter commit his 10 big blind short stack with ace-ten. Muniz called with jack-ten, which improved to a straight thanks to running turn and river cards. This busted Metter and gifted Muniz a 29 million stack.

Heads-up was set only a few moments later. Fellows chose king-queen to move all-in with for seven big blinds. Muniz called with ace-three. Fellow flopped an inside straight draw, but Muniz made top pair. That pair of aces remained best and Fellow headed to the cashier’s desk to collect $103,316.

Heads-Up Ends After One Hand

Only one hand was needed to crown the tournament’s champion. Muniz opened to 1,500,000 with ace-king, Block jammed for 10,100,000 with pocket threes, and Muniz called. A king on the 6s-7h-Ks flop propelled Muniz into the lead. The 7c turn changed nothing, neither did the Th river, and Block was sent to the showers in second-place.

This victory takes Muniz’s lifetime winnings to $316,427 and is almost 10-times larger than his previous best.

The next WPTDeepStacks takes place in Brussels, Belgium from February 6th. Five other stops play out before the tour returns to the U.S. on March 20th in Maryland.

Matthew Pitt

If it’s something you can play online for real money, chances are Matthew knows a bit about it. He’s been writing about slots, craps and poker for the better part of the last decade. He’s written for PokerNews, PartyPoker and many other respected online gambling websites during the last nine years.

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