Event #13: $365 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo

Hammond, Indiana (October 27, 2016) — Matt Lambrecht is the champion of Event #13 at Horseshoe Hammond, defeating a field of 183 players to earn his first gold ring. He also collected the top prize of $14,275 and 50 points toward the season-long race for seats in the Global Casino Championship.

Lambrecht is 23 years old, and he’s a new Chicago resident who is just a couple months into what he hopes will be a long career as a professional poker player. Fresh out of Finance school at Southern Methodist University, Lambrecht came to Chicago to pursue the game full-time, and so far, things are right on script. “My plan was to win a ring within this year, and, uh… so, that worked out,” he said, grabbing the Jostens box to inspect his prize.

Although it’s new as a full-time profession, Lambrecht has been playing online and live poker since he was 18 or so. Now that he has more time to dedicate to live events, the results are starting to come quickly. This win was his third cash of the series at Hammond, though the two previous were both worth less than $1,000 apiece. Lambrecht said he played a lot of single-table tournaments surrounding last summer’s WSOP in Las Vegas, and that experience was likely of some use at a volatile final table on Monday.

Because it’s a one-day event, stacks are relatively short throughout these turbos, but Lambrecht found the conditions perfectly suited to his style. “Sure, it’s shallow, but it was pretty playable,” he said. “Even though we’re like 10 big blinds deep, people are conservative. So I was able to min-raise, and call, and see a lot of flops.”

Lambrecht said he won a huge pot with kings full to build a big stack in the middle of the day, and he entered the final table second in chips behind Gary Vick. Lambrecht outlasted both Vick and fellow-Chicagoan Jimmy Salaymeh to claim the series’ last gold ring and the first of his young career. His three cashes at Hammond earned him a combined total of $15,953 in winnings and 57.5 points, finishing the series in third place on the Casino Champion leaderboard.

With the elimination of Gary Vick (pictured) in third place, Matt Lambrecht and Jimmy Salaymeh are heads-up for the series' final ring. Lambrecht begins the duel with the chip lead.

Matt Lambrecht - 1,110,000 (19 bb)
Jimmy Salaymeh - 720,000 (12 bb)

Blinds are 30,000/60,000 with a 10,000 ante in the current level, so there are just over 30 total big blinds in play.

Level 19 is just starting, and the field has been reduced to 21 players. They're now all in the money, each of them guaranteed to earn at least $608.

Blinds are 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante in the current level, putting the average stack just under 15 big blinds.

Level 8 has just concluded, and the field has been sent on a 15-minute break while the green chips are raced off. This break represents the last chance to join Event #13, as the window for late registration will close once Level 9 begins. The board shows 170 entries so far.

The official numbers, including the prizepool, will be released shortly after registration closes.