Preston Duro won the 2023 Lodge Championship Series $3,000 no-limit Hold'em Main Event taking home the $426,801 top prize and his first live poker event title. The tournament had 776 participants who exceeded its initial $2 million guarantee and formed a $2,134,000 prize pool.
The Texas player battled tough opponents at the final table. His previous largest live payout before the recent tournament was the $5,740, he won in the Millionaire Mayhem Poker Series $600 buy-in event. The Lodge Card Club in Texas hosted The Lodge Championship series between May 10 and May 16.
It had seven starting flights and three days of intense action. Yet, Duron amassed 1,368 Card Player Player of the Year (POY) points and improved his position in this year's POY race standings to the top 100 players. Some of the players who cashed in the tournament but missed a seat at the final table included Aram Oganyan, Mo Abedi Arani, Eric Afriat, Joey Weissman, Bin Weng, Cord Garcia, Jesse Lonis, and Alex Foxen.
The Final Table' Prizes
- Preston Duron-$426,801
- Jason Daly-$290,864
- Devin Ullman-$207,852
- Justin Saliba-$151,727
- Daniel Rezaei-$112,462
- Shaun Deeb-$84,506
- Scott Griffiths-$64,020
- Christian Roberts-$48,869
- Jared Jaffee-$37,558
What Transpired at the Table?
Jared Jaffee was the first finalist to leave the table in ninth place after Shaun Deeb's pocket jacks of five beat his A-K suited in a flip. Deeb had the largest stack and Duron followed in the second position as the final table action's live stream began.
Christian Roberts followed Jaffee in eighth place after using a set of jacks to move all-in against Devin Ullman's flush. The river didn't help the former and his run ended. Scott Griffiths's K-J faced Jason Daly's K-Q suited.
Unfortunately, Griffith's card lost and exited the tournament in seventh place. Deeb's stack was reduced to 19 big blinds prompting him to put A-Q in the hijack before opening and making a four-bet shove over Duron's three-bet.
The latter dominated the former with A-K on the button and sent him packing in sixth place with $84,506. Daniel Rezaei's run ended in fifth place after using A-4 from the big blind to call Duron's small-blind shove.
Justin Saliba made a 23 big blind three-bet shove for the next pot against Ullman's under-the-gun min-raise. the latter used A-9 suited to call and dominated the former's A-2 suited.
Ullman flopped eights and nines which sent Saliba packing in the fourth position. The former lost a big pot to Daly after his opponent's A-6 defeated his K-Q hence exiting the event in third place. Ullman's elimination set up heads-up action between Daly and Duron, who had a 3:2 stack advantage.
They battled it out for almost two hours as Duron increased his lead to over 3:1. He used K9 to make a button raise while Daly used AJ to make a 23 big blind three-bet shove. 1053A2 landed on the board giving Duron and the rivered flush as Daly finished second with $290,864.
