Cunix had to play through the pain barrier because he was sporting a broken collar bone, an injury sustained saving his son from being run over by a wagon! Cunix plays in many of the WPT events in the states but he is not a professional player, instead he is a keen amateur and one who now has almost $1,200,000 in live tournament winnings.
Play kicked off yesterday at 16:00 local time and it took 90-minutes for the final table to lose its first player. On hand number 40 and with blinds of 20,000/40,000/5,000a Cunix opened to 100,000 from middle position and Will "The Thrill" Failla made the call from the big blind. The pair saw the flop come down Tc-9c-7c and Failla quickly moved all-in. Cunix snapped his hand off and showed JcTs whilst Failla revealed QcJd. The As turn and 5d river failed to changed anything and Failla became the sixth place finisher.
Just 15 minutes later and the popular Tony Dunst joined Failla on the rail. Dunst is part of the WPT broadcasting team but had to give that a miss due to reaching this final table. He looked down at Kh3h and decided that was good enough to move all-in for 515,000 for. Likewise, Darren Elias though Ac9h was worth a call from the big blind. The board ran out 10d-6h-6d-Qs-2d missing both players but eliminating Dunst due to him having the lower kickers.
Another 50 minutes past before the four remaining players were reduced to three. The blinds were now 25,000/50,000/5,000a and it was another open-shove from under the gun, this time from Daniel Buzgon and his KhQs for 725,000 chips. James Calderaro called in the big blind with AsJc and when the five community cards ran out Ac-Jh-9c-7h-4c Buzgon was gone!
Third place went to Elias in somewhat of a cooler hand. He opened to 150,000 with blinds 30,000/60,000/10,000a only to see Calderaro three-bet to 375,000. Elias then moved all-in for around 1,600,000 and was instantly called. Elias turned over AcKc and found he was up against the 10d-10h of Calderaro. By the river the board read 7s-5h-3d-9c-6d and after a brief pause to count the chips the heads-up battle was ready to commence.
Calderaro started with a 5,610,000 to 3,970,000 chip advantage but first Cunix dragged himself level, then took the lead, then lost the lead, then clawed his way back into contention and finally forge a large advantage for himself. By the time hand number 154 was ready to begin Cunix had turned the tables on his opponent and was in front by 8,100,000 to 1,480,000 chips. Cunix moved all-in with 3h3s and Calderaro made the call with Jd10d. Although the hand started as a typical coinflip it was actually almost over as soon as the flop came down 7s-5h-3d, gifting Cunix a set. The 9c turn gave him some outs to a straight but they failed to materialise as the river was the six of diamonds and with that Cunix had become a World Poker Tour Champion!
WPT Jacksonville Final Table Results
1st: Shawn Cunix - $400,600
2nd: James Calderaro - $236,560
3rd: Darren Elias - $147,850
4th: Daniel Buzgon - $94,624
5th: Tony Dunst - $66,532
6th: Will Failla - $54,704