Max Pinnola Wins Pennsylvania State Poker Championship; Takes Home NAPT Gold Pass

After four Day 1 flights with 243 entrants, the 34 players who advanced all came together for Day 2 of $2,200 Event #3 at Pennsylvania State Poker Championship here at Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia. The PokerStars sponsored event created a total prize pool of $500,000 resulting in Max Pinnola emerging victorious for a whopping $103,000 score. Pinnola and Matthew Sabia (2nd – $93,000) agreed on an ICM chop after 30 minutes of heads-up play. Stacks were nearly even in chips, both with almost 6,000,000 respectively.

The winner of this event would also receive a Gold Pass to the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event in November. It was agreed Sabia would take the PokerStars sponsored package worth $10,300, which includes travel, accommodation, and the $5,300 tournament buy-in.

PokerNews caught up with Pinnola to talk about his experience at the PSPC and his overall results. “Really means a lot to me, in the $550 that was my second biggest score. I think it’s mostly experience; it allows me not to panic when chips get down.” Pinnola referenced a $47,142 second-place score earlier in the series. Pinnola’s best score came back in December of 2023 in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, $5 million guaranteed for $257,100.

Matthew Sabia also had plenty of experience himself coming into Day 2. The Pennsylvania native had nearly $850,000 in total live earnings coming into today, with his biggest cash to date coming in August of this year for $169,200. Sabia came into heads-up play with a major disadvantage, but spiked an ace to give him life. From there, he continued fighting and crawled back to even in chips with Pinnola.

Matthew Zambanini came into the day as the chip leader and looked poised to make another final table run. After an up and down Day 2, he ultimately hit the rail in 13th place after check-raising the flop with a combo draw that ultimately bricked out versus Sarah Wasch.

Tim Faro bagged the biggest stack on Day 1c with over 818,000 in the bag for Day 2. He was able to maneuver his way down to the final two tables. Faro ultimately lost a 1,000,000-chip flip to Wasch from the small blind versus her big blind and headed to the payout desk in 14th place.

Pinnola talked about his future plans and passion for the game. “I love this game so much I just can’t wait to play more poker if I’m being honest. I’m going to Borgata on Wednesday and am going to play a few tournaments down there. I’m on a big heater right now, and I think it’s wise to play as much as you can when you’re on a heater.”

Final Table Payouts

*Denotes heads-up ICM deal

Michael Hager finished in tenth place on the final table bubble after putting his stack of chips into the middle from the small blind. Bin Weng was sitting in the big blind with a monster and eliminated Hager. Hager had great success and went deep in all three PSPC events.

Final Table Action

Charles Bryant came into the final table ninth in chips, ultimately bowing out to Matthew Sabia in ninth place. Bryant paired his ace and went with his hand on the turn, drawing dead to a chop to Sabia.

Bin Weng bagged a massive stack after Day 1a and came into Day 2 confident. His aggressive playstyle catapulted him to the final table, but he hit the rail in eighth place. Weng was unaware of an under-the-gun open and moved all-in from the small blind for his remaining chips, thinking it was an unopened pot. He failed to improve versus Alexander Wiggins and was eliminated after another great run.

Michael Bohmerwald finished in seventh place after getting his queens cracked by Wasch. Bohmerwald was the short stack seven-handed and was on the unfortunate end of a two-outer, to bring his final table run to an end.

John Tavvs picked his spots well at the final table and outlasted opponents with bigger stacks than him to gain important pay jumps. He was down to 5,000 chips and spun his stack back up to nearly 500,000 chips, but that was the ceiling. After a long battle, he was unable to improve against Wasch and her king-high, and headed to the payout desk in sixth place.

Alexander Wiggins was the fifth-place finisher after getting his five big blinds all in from the button. He ran into a pocket pair in the big blind and could not improve to the winning hand after the runout. Wiggins catapulted to over the 3,000,000-chip mark at one point after flopping quads and gaining a full double-up versus Pinnola on the final table, but that was his peak. He graciously exited the table after shaking his opponents’ hands and headed to the payout desk for a great score.

Grant Wang ended his day in fourth place after losing a blind vs blind all-in pot to Wasch. Wasch had Wang dominated preflop, and he failed to improve on the runout, hitting the payout desk for a nice cash. Wang was fourth in chips with four players remaining, hoping to spin up his stack, but fourth place was the end of the road for him.

Wasch qualified for her seat after winning a $250 Ladies Event, earning herself a spot in the $2,200 Main Event. During final table play, she showed she belonged and scored three knockouts on her way to building a massive stack three-handed. She ultimately lost a chunk of her chips to Pinnola after flopping top pair against his pocket aces. In her final hand of play, Wasch put her chips in the middle with the best hand but fell short to a flopped straight.

That concludes our coverage for the $2,200 PSPC Event #3 at Live! Casino and Hotel Philadelphia. Be sure to follow PokerNews for live updates and coverage of events all around the world.