Jay McVeigh began the HPT Main Event final Table at Gates Poker Room in Black Hawk, CO., as the short stack at 445,000. He slipped to 7bb at one point and needed a river Ace to keep from finishing in 9th place.
He was all in with Jacks against Queens and turned a straight to survive once again. By 4-handed play he was the chipleader and went on to earn the $137,876 first-place prize.
"I sucked out in every possible way," McVeigh laughed shortly after the winner's interviews were completed. He sat with his wife and watched the final few hands on an iPad awaiting the final photos.
McVeigh went to heads-up play with a 10-1 lead against start-of-day chipleader Tan Hoang and closed out the win after a few hands. McVeigh earns the win at his third HPT final table. He was 6th in 2016 and 5th in 2017 in Kansas City, where he lived before moving to Colorado a year ago.
Jason Meglich had the chiplead for a while before exiting in third place with a $56,649 payday, followed by John Small in 4th ($39,365). The entire rail, livestream commentators and more were cheering on Gloria McCall all day, as she picked up a 5th-place finish and a $29,673 for her first-ever tournament cash.
David Levy (no, not David Levi) was 6th ($23,079), Jeff Banghart, who never had cards throughout the final table, took home $19,183 in 7th, with Corey Williams 8th ($15,886) and Jason Su in 9th ($13,428).
Among those who came and earned a Main Event cash was the leader of the HPT Player of the Year leaderboard, Nick Pupillo in 12th ($10,251), just 2 days after a 7th place finish in Atlantic City.
Here's the final results.
-- Dan Ross - Hold'em Media Live
-- Hayley Hochstetler Photos
and Hoang puts on his backpack when the turn 
comes, as Hoang survived all-ins twice after 'going backpack.'
and Hoang is eliminated in 2nd place, cashing for $85,123
, McVeigh leads out for 300,000, Meglich moves all in and McVeigh quickly calls to put Meglich at risk.
for a flush draw and two overs
for top pair, and a straight flush draw
and Meglich is eliminated in 3rd place, cashing for $56,649. McVeich moves to 11 million.
flop, two pair for McVeigh.
turn gives Hoang a gutter to a 6 and only a 6.
, Hoang leading out for 350,000, McVeigh coming along and Meglich stepping aside.
, Hoang bets out to 600,000, and McVeigh moves all in. Hoang asks for a count - 2,260,000 - and finds a call, but doesn't like what h sees.
for a flush
for a larger flush
and the chips shift a great deal. McVeigh moves to 6,420,000, Meglich is at 4,755,000 and Hoang slides to 1,190,000.
