Sung Joo Hyun Wins the $3,500 Wynn Spring Classic Championship

South Korea’s Sung Joo Hyun won his second live tournament of the year this week when he triumphed in the $3,500 Wynn Spring Classic Championship. Hyun chopped the tournament with Matthias Auer and walked away with $323,409.

It has been a good year for Hyun so far. He won the $1,600 WPTDeepStacks Venetian in January for $208,335. This latest prize, however, is the South Korean’s biggest score of his career.

$3,500 Wynn Spring Classic Championship Final Table

Place	Player	Country	Prize
1	Sung Joo Hyun	South Korea	$323,409*
2	Matthias Auer	Austria	$323,408*
3	Will Failla	United States	$173,240
4	Eric Afriat	Canada	$121,450
5	Matthew Wantman	United States	$89,842
6	Mihai Manole	Romania	$69,588
7	David Cabrera Polop	Mexico	$55,291
8	Chris Moorman	United Kingdom	$45,760

*reflects a heads-up chop

The Wynn Spring Classic Championship attracted 614 players who each paid $3,500 to enter. Those entrants created a $1,985,676 prize pool which the top 63 finishers shared.

Tuan Pham (54th – $9,067), Nick Pupilo (51st – $9,067), Sergi Reixach (38th – $12,021), and Barry Shulman (34th – $12,021) cashed. As did Sean Winter (31st – $12,021), Aaron Van Blarcum (22nd – $15,919), Ankush Mandavia (10th – $32,815), and Adam Hendrix (9th $38,611).

British online poker legend Chris Moorman was the first casualty of the Wynn Spring Classic Championship final table. Auer opened to 210,00 during the 50,000/100,000/100,000a level, and called when Moorman three-bet all-in for 1,600,000. Auer showed Ad-Ks, Moorman Kd-Td, and the board ran 3d-As-7h-Tc-6c. Moorman banked $45,760 for his eighth-place finish.

Seventh place and $55,291 went to David Polop. The Mexican three-bet all-in for 10.5 big blinds with Kh-8h after Hyuen opened the betting with what turned out to be Kd-Kc. The kings held, and Polop busted.

Auer Soars Into the Lead With Six Remaining

Auer strengthened his grip on the Wynn Spring Classic Championship chip lead with six players remaining. Romanian pro Mihai Manole open-shoved for 12 big blinds with Ac-7d and Auer called with Jh-Jc. A final board reading Ks-Ts-8s-Kh-2h busted Manole and boosted Auer’s stack to 13,000,000.

Manole’s seat had not gone cold before Matthew Wantman crashed out in fifth. Wantman busted at the hands of Hyun, his Kh-7h running into the dominating Ac-Ks. Wantman flopped a flush draw, but the final board ran Td-Qh-6h-9s-Ts. The $89,842 fifth-place prize was the last prize not to weigh in at six-figures.

The first of those six-figure prizes, $121,450, went to Eric Afriat. All Afriat’s chips went into the middle with the board reading Jd-Kh-4h-3h while holding 4s-3d. Two pair is a strong hand but not as strong as the 8h-2h Auer held. The river bricked, and Afriat headed to the cashier’s desk.

Heads-up was set when Will “The Thrill” Failla ran out of steam in third-place. Failla jammed his 15 big blind stack with pocket eights, and Hyun called with As-Qh. Winning coinflips is crucial to tournament success, but Failla lost his flip. The five community cards ran 4s-2h-Kh-6s-Ah.

A Strange Heads-Up Deal

Hyun trailed Auer by 9,000,000 to 15,560,000 chips at the start of heads-up play, but that did not stop the pair from striking a deal. Bizarrely, Auer agreed to an even heads-up chop and ran three flips to decide the Wynn Spring Classic Championship champion. Hyun won two of the three planned flips and became the tournament’s champion.

Auer had only $8,535 in live tournament winnings before this tournament. Hyun had more than $550,000 in winnings, so that had a bearing in discussions, perhaps.

Day 1B and Day 1C of the $1,000,000 guaranteed No-Limit Hold’em event play on March 19 and March 20. Both cost $1,600 to buy into. A $530 $50,000 guaranteed event rounds off the festival.

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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