The $3,000 buy-in event drew far more players than tournament staff had predicted. Early, conservative estimates had the number at about 450 but the tournament drew 736 players instead.
When that field was reduced to just eight, the competition just seemed to get harder.
Aside from our champion the final table consisted of Martin Finger, Taylor Paur, Mustapha Kani, Dimitar Danchev, Jonathan Borenstein, Jose Carlos Garcia and Stefan Jedlicka.
Sit Back and Move Up
While Kay had the lead going into the final table, his strategy was to avoid the initial volley of raises and jams.
“[My strategy was to] just sit back, let everybody else bust each other,” Kay said. “They were extremely aggressive and it’s not a style I’m used to playing.
“I was the chip leader going in so I just thought I’d sit back and move up the payjumps and then try to win it when we got five-handed.”
The strategy worked well for Kay as he managed to get heads-up without eliminating a single player at the final table.
Unfortunately for Kay, that player was WSOP bracelet winner, EPT champion, EPT Super High Roller champion and high-stakes heads-up specialist Martin Finger.
Finger also started the match with a 2-to-1 lead.
“[Finger] plays online, like the highest stakes heads-up, so at first I was like, how am I ever going to win this?” Kay said.
“But I made like six hands in a row where I just had the goods every time and he had a bunch of tough spots.
“I was so fortunate to basically just flop the nuts every hand.”
The tournament ended when Kay got pocket nines against Finger’s queen-ten. Finger paired both his hole cards but Kay hit a set to win the pot and the tournament. The final eight and payouts:
1. Josh Kay - $367,928 2. Martin Finger - $223,900 3. Stefan Jedlicka - $158,740 4. Jose Carlos Garcia - 119,820 5. Taylor Paur - $94,920 6. Dimitar Danchev - $71,780 7. Jonathan Borenstein - $51,540 8. Mustapha Kanit - $35,200
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