Maurice Hawkins fought back from being down to fewer than 10BB 3-handed – and a 4-1 deficit heads-up – to claim the Heartland Poker Tour main event title at Ameristar St. Charles.
Hawkins was running over the final table early on, moving from 1.6 million to as high as 3.7 million. He went downhill fast when 3-handed play began, falling as low as 800k of the 10.4 million in play. A triple-up to 2.7 million sent his stack back upwards.
HB Sablotny and Hawkins played heads-up for more than three hours, staying close to even the first two hours, before Sablotny opened to a 4-1 chiplead over the next hour. Hawkins rapidly regained his composure, his chip, and then closed out Sablotny in a massive cooler, his 5-7 > A-6 by flopping a straight against a turned two pair.
Check out the full updates we did for this and att HPT Main Events at HPTupdates.com
Dan is the founder of PokerLiveUpdates, a veteran poker tournament reporter who can be found wandering somewhat aimlessly through tournament arenas worldwide. As a founding member of FunTour2.0, he searches for the best in craft beer at all locations in the poker world.
