Jeff Fielder Wins Second Title on Tour at WPTDeepStacks Championship

Jeff Fielder (pictured) topped a field of 501 players to win the Season 4 WPTDeepStacks Championship Main Event on Tuesday at Thunder Valley Casino Resort. Fielder earned his second WPTDeepStacks title and $220,616 in first-place prize money, which included a $3,500 seat in the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event in March 2018. Fielder becomes just the second two-time champion in WPTDeepStacks history, joining Season 4 WPTDeepStacks Player of the Year Rex Clinkscales. Fielder won his first WPTDeepStacks title in Iowa last October, and he now holds career earnings of more than $1.3 million.

“I was really short yesterday on Day 2,” said Fielder. “I struggled, survived, kept building, and the final table was awesome. I knew quite a few players, and heads-up with my buddy Cord [Garcia] was great. Yeah, it was really fun.”

Fielder really took control of the final table during a lengthy four-handed battle that saw him take control of the chip lead.

“I noticed that Ben [Keeline] was definitely playing tight, so I tried to take advantage of his chip stack, so to speak,” Fielder said. “I tried to start applying a lot of pressure where I thought he was going to be doing it, and since he was playing a little bit tight I decided to take those spots and it worked out.”

Fielder’s girlfriend, Jenn, is currently undergoing chemotherapy treatments for cancer, and the two have been traveling a lot in order to knock some things off their bucket list.

“Good, she is doing very well,” Fielder said of how she is doing. “She has a clean bill of health right now, but she is still going to take chemotherapy forever, but yeah, she’s doing really, really good.

“Absolutely, and she definitely needs it (traveling),” Fielder added about the travel the two have been doing. “She works so hard as a social worker. She is under-appreciated and overworked, the whole nine yards. She is the best.”

WPTDeepStacks Championship Final Table Results

1st: Jeff Fielder – $220,616*
2nd: Cord Garcia – $152,872
3rd: Ben Keeline – $98,387
4th: Ian Steinman – $68,080
5th: Chris Tham – $52,257
6th: Justo Avalos – $43,566
7th: Noel Rodriguez – $36,324
8th: Hafiz Khan – $29,081
9th: Jonathan George – $21,839

*First place includes a $3,500 seat in the Season XVI WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event.

Cards got into the air at noon with 10 players left from the field of 501, and the elimination of female poker legend Kathy Liebert in 10th place took the tournament down to the official final table of nine.

Action continued to move quickly when Jonathan George was eliminated in ninth place and Hafiz Khan was taken out in eighth place to leave the field with seven players before 2 p.m. PT. Justo Avalso then doubled up and quadrupled up before the first break of the day.

Noel Rodriguez hit the rail in seventh place and Avalos finally fell in sixth place to cut things down to five. Chris Tham then scored a double up to survive, but the next time he was all in, Tham was eliminated in fifth place.

Headed into four-handed action, you could just tell that it would be a long battle. Ian Steinman prolonged that battle when he scored a double, and the group continued to exchange chips.

The four-handed stalemate finally ended around 7 p.m. when Steinman exited in fourth place.

The final three players faced off for a few hands before taking a dinner break, but when they returned the fireworks went off. Garcia doubled up on the first hand back, and that left Ben Keeline short. Keeline was quickly all in, but he could not survive and busted in third place.

It was Fielder who took out Keeline, and that gave him 9.03 million at the start of heads-up play to the 5.8 million held by Garcia. Garcia was able to double up once, but a little after 9 p.m. the final hand transpired.

Garcia raised to 500,000 on the button, Fielder reraised to 1.2 million, and Garcia reraised all in. With his opponent covered, Fielder called , and the two final players flipped over their cards to reveal Fielder with the and Garcia with the . The board ran out to give Fielder the victory on the river.

Fielder won the pot and the tournament thanks to that four on the river, and Garcia was eliminated in second place, good for $152,872. Fielder took home the top prize of $220,216, which included a $3,500 seat in the WPT Rolling Thunder Main Event in March 2018, and he also received the super-sized WPTDeepStacks Championship trophy.

For Fielder, the Season 4 WPTDeepStacks Champion win marked his second victory on tour. Fielder previously won the Season 3 WPTDeepStacks Iowa Main Event in October 2016, and he is now a two-time WPTDeepStacks champion.

Congratulations to the Season 4 WPTDeepStacks Championship winner, Jeff Fielder!

https://youtu.be/VdM8qQaNPJk

That concludes our coverage from the WPTDeepStacks Championship Main Event. A special thank you goes out to Thunder Valley Casino Resort for hosting another great stop on the tour, and their first WPTDeepStacks Championship.

Season 5 Is Up Next for WPTDeepStacks in North America

The first stop for Season 5 on the WPTDeepStacks schedule in North America will take poker’s premier mid-major tournament circuit back to the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, for WPTDeepStacks Hollywood. The $1,100 Main Event runs from January 11-16 and features a $1 million guaranteed prize pool. The WPTDeepStacks coverage team will be on site to provide live updates, chip counts, photos, videos, and more, so stay tuned to both WPTDeepStacks.com and WPT.com for more.