06 July 2025
Matthew Ashton is the latest champion of one of the most prestigious poker tournaments in the world - the Poker Players Championship. The 2013 edition had a total of 132 participants and it took 5 days to discover the champion, Matthew Ashton.
Day 5 of Event #55 lasted more than 11 hours, and it started with the following 8 finalists:
Seat 1: Matthew Ashton - 2,996,000
Seat 2: Jonathan Duhamel - 1,627,000
Seat 3: Don Nguyen - 5,068,000
Seat 4: Mike Wattel - 810,000
Seat 5: George Danzer - 2,868,000
Seat 6: Minh Ly - 2,307,000
Seat 7: John Hennigan - 1,412,000
Seat 8: David Benyamine - 2,709,000
Team PokerStars Pro Jonathan Duhamel was the first elimination of the day. Afther Duhamel, Mike Wattel was the next in line.
8 hands later, it was Minh Ly's turn to abandon the final table.
Nguyen kept on amassing chips, eliminating the Team PokerStars Pro George Danzer in 5th place.
When the table became 4 handed, a long period of time without eliminations followed. It took almost 4 hours for the 4th placed to be eliminated: David Benyamine.
After a break, the action continued 3-handed; Ashton started paving the way for his victory, collecting the chips of John Hennigan, eliminating him in 3rd place.
The heads-up duel lasted for only 20 minutes. Ashton had 17.300.000 chips and Nguyen only 2.500.000 chips. The hand that sealed both player's fate was a Limit Hold'em one:
Ashton was in the button and raised; Nguyen was the BB and gave the call.
The flop came 10c-7d-3d; Nguyen checked and Ashton bet. Nguyen raised and Ashton called. When the turn came 9s, Nguyen bet straight away - Ashton didn't flinch and gave the call.
The river came Qd - Nguyen bet, Ashton raised and Nguyen moved all-in. Nguyen show his 10s-6c... and Ashton revelead a Kc-10d, winning with a better kicker.
This was the final classification of the final table:
1st place - Matthew Ashton - $1,774,089
2nd place - Don Nguyen - $1,096,254
3rd place - John Hennigan - $686,568
4th place - David Benyamine - $497,122
5th place - George Danzer - $388,523
6th place - Minh Ly - $309,830
7th place - Mike Wattel - $251,602
8th place - Jonathan Duhamel - $207,630
