Short Deck Specialist Jonathan Depa Wins Poker Masters Event #3

The $10,000 Short Deck event at the Poker Masters has been won by Jonathan Depa who defeated a field of 37 entries to collect the top prize worth  $133,200. Depa dominated this event, holding the chip lead nearly from start to finish, busting Alex Foxen after an intense heads-up battle to close it out.

“Heaters are always fun,” Depa said with a big smile after winning the event, just a week after taking down the €50k Short Deck at World Series of Poker Europe in Rozvadov for €641,250.

“I don’t really play that many tournaments. To win two tournaments in two weeks is pretty awesome and it’s always nice when you’re just basically winning every all in.”

The action started six-handed with chips moving back and forth before ARIA High Roller of the Year leader Sam Soverel was the first player to bust. Jorryt van Hoof limped under the gun holding king-queen suited and for 940,000, Soverel moved all in at ante 20,000. The action folded back around to Van Hoof and he made the call, signaling trouble for Soverel who tabled queen-ten off suit. The board brought no help and Soverel pocketed $22,200.

Ben Yu busted in fifth place when he shoved jack-ten off suit and Jonathan Depa called with ace-king suited. While Yu flopped a pair of jacks and a straight draw, the turn brought a king to give Depa the lead and after a blank on the river, Yu exited taking home $29,600. Erik Seidel, flying under the radar with a short stack, then doubled up with aces versus Van Hoof’s kings to bring him back in contention. Van Hoof remained the short stack until he ultimately busted in fourth place to take home $37,000. On Van Hoof’s final hand he ran ace-queen suited into Alex Foxen’s kings to send him to the rail.

Play got to heads-up when Erik Seidel moved all in with king-nine off suit and ran into the ace-queen suited of Foxen. Seidel flopped a pair of nines but Foxen caught running clubs to make the ace-high flush. Seidel collected $59,200 for his third-place finish.

On the final hand, Foxen was all in with jack-nine against Depa’s queen-jack. The board gave Foxen lots of draws but Depa’s flopped pair of queens held up. Foxen collected $88,800 for his second ever Short Deck cash as well as his second cash this Poker Masters to tie him for fifth on the leader board with 210 points.

After it was all said and done, Depa played down his Short Deck prowess despite many players lauding him as a specialist and the best player in the field.

“I definitely don’t have it all figured out, that’s for sure. I’m learning just like everybody else’s. I have a lot of PLO experience and the two games have tons of similarities. So that’s probably why I picked it up pretty quickly. I really like it because it sort of has the best elements of No Limit Hold’em and PLO combined which makes it a really enjoyable game for me.”

A Pot Limit Omaha cash game specialist for many years, Depa’s passion for the game was reignited by discovering Short Deck.

“I mostly played PLO for over 10 years and when you play something for so long, it gets stale. With Short Deck, it ignited my passion for poker. I’ve been putting up some work studying something that honestly I really haven’t been doing previously. I really had poker on the back burner the last couple of years, but I found Short Deck and now, you know, I’m out there grinding again. So it’s nice.

The Poker Masters, for Depa, is truly a home game as he lives within a stone’s throw of the PokerGO Studio. After playing a few events last year and finished seventh in the $10,000 Short Deck event in 2018, he’s eager to keep coming back and even play a few more this year but he’s very blunt about his No Limit Hold’em skills and steering clear of the most popular form of poker.

“Let’s be honest, I’m a terrible player long deck player. I would get absolutely destroyed in these fields. So, no, I’m not going to chase the Purple Jacket. I’ll play the $25k PLO and the Big Bet event tomorrow but that’s probably it.”

After a brief pause, Depa added, “But look, if I win the $25k PLO I might have to give it a shot!”

Next up at the Poker Masters is the final table of Event #4 $10,000 8-Game that gets underway at 4:00 pm ET on Friday. Follow Day 1 Live Reporting of this event on Poker Central right now. New to PokerGO? Subscribe right now.