On Sunday all thirty six of the remaining players in the field came back to commence play on the final day of the MSPT Belle of Baton Rouge. Someone still left in the field was going to be crowned at the end of this event but it turned out to eventually be Shawn Schoreck who defeated Kou Vang.
The first woman in MSPT history to have the chip lead heading into the final day, Erica Sumner, was in a surprising turn of events actually the first player to hit the rail when the final table was set. In her bust out hand she shoved over someone else’s open raise holding A-10 but was up against Daniel Holmes’ A-Q and there were no miracle cards to keep her in the tournament.
Early on Day 2 the eliminations came fast and furious right through until it was hand for hand nearing the money bubble. The bubble lasted for quite some time, though, until eventually there was the elimination of Seville Hale in a hand which he will no doubt remember for a long time as the flop looked very promising but couldn’t catch one of the many outs he needed to double up through Daniel Holmes. Hale open shoved from UTG with Ac-5c, but was called by Holmes’ 5d-5s. The flop came down Jh-4c-2c giving Hale a monster draw and actually making him the favorite in the hand, but when the turn came 4s and the river Qd it didn’t improve his hand, and he was resigned to the rail.
The eliminations came a bit faster following the money bubble. Two players busted out in fairly rapid succession, and the final table of the MSPT Belle of Baton Rouge was set. At the beginning of the final table the first four players were quickly eliminated. It was a particularly tough elimination for Robbie Matthews at the final table. He had turned the nut straight against his opponent’s two pair, only to have his opponent make a boat on the river in such a brutal fashion.
Tom Annonson was the next to bust with T-T that was dominated against Schoreck’s Q-Q. Then Will Souther who was short stacked found himself in bad shape when he shoved A-4 but was called by Kou Vang holding A-Q. There was no lucky four after the flop sending him to the rail.
With the play now three-handed Daniel Holmes took control of the table, but unfortunately for him his aggression proved to be very costly, he just couldn’t manage to win an important coin flip. Short stacked, he decided to move all in a short while later but Schoreck called his shove. Holme’s tabled 8-8 and Schoreck had A-K. The ace on the turn all but ended Holme’s shot at winning the MSPT Belle of Baton Rouge event and the 2 on the river ended any chance he had of winning the tournament finishing in third place.
And so the heads-up battle was contested between Kou Vang and Shawn Schoreck. Head to head it seemed apparent that Vang was a strong favorite to win it, having won significantly more in tournament prize money over the years.
But it was Schoreck who managed to eventually grind out the win and claim the $34k prize money for winning the Mid-State Poker Tour Belle of Baton Rouge helped by the fact his 6-6 had Vang dominated holding 3-3 in a key hand. Even though Vang would be slightly disappointed in not winning he still collected a very handsome $21k for his second place finish.