Action has concluded in the $600 Kickoff Event here at the Maryland State Poker Championship hosted by Live! Casino & Hotel Maryland. Nick Kocman has emerged victorious, earning his biggest score to date with a massive payout of $77,869.
The six Day 1 starting flights saw a total 892 entries, 115 of which returned for Day 2. Kocman navigated through the sizable field on his path to capture a majority of the $456,704 prize pool, along with the two trophies to place on his mantle.
PokerNews caught up with Kocman after the win to ask him how he was feeling after taking down the biggest tournament of his life. "Well it's kind of surreal, kind of just taking it all in, getting the photos, seeing my cards, doing the chip push. It hasn't sunk in yet but I cant stop smiling. It's been a really great day, a really great atmosphere, and really appreciate just getting the opportunity to do this today."
Kocman had made a deep run in a World Series of Poker event over the summer, finishing 10th for over $12,000. When asked what it means to him to close this one out, Kocman explained "You know, it means a bunch. Once you get to that first final table, you start to really get an itch and I'm fortunate that I got two within about a month. It usually doesn't happen like that."
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Kocman | United States | $77,869 |
| 2 | Alan Gendelman | United States | $51,836 |
| 3 | Bradley McFarland | United States | $38,135 |
| 4 | Lara Eisenberg | United States | $28,316 |
| 5 | Eric Florczak | United States | $21,648 |
| 6 | Michael Zazzera | United States | $15,985 |
| 7 | Luis Nieto | United States | $12,739 |
| 8 | Andrew Chang | United States | $9,591 |
| 9 | Daniel Bellis | United States | $7,787 |
Day 2 Action
The tournament's structure set a quick pace, with the remaining field that started the day nearly getting cut in half within the first few levels. Even after the three-table redraw, players continued to get eliminated at a rapid fire rate.
The PokerStars sponsored event saw five online qualifiers returning for Day 2, who were all still in the running for a Gold Pass to the NAPT Las Vegas Main Event in November. Only the last player standing would go home with the Gold Pass package, which includes travel, accommodation, and the $5,300 tournament buy-in.
Greg Jackson, Rahul Agarwal, and Joseph Weaver made early exits and it was down to Michael Lavin and Daniel Bellis battling it out for the prize. Lavin and Bellis were sitting at the same table for a good portion of the day, which created an interesting dynamic knowing each other's exact chip counts and moves at all times.
Bellis survived several all ins throughout the day and ultimately came out on top in the last longer duel, when Lavin was eliminated in 18th place. Lavin got it in good, but his ace-ten fell to the ace-eight of Josh Mischel who ended up hitting the nut flush.
Final Table Play
Kocman was the Day 1e chip leader and began Day 2 sitting third overall in the counts. He rode that momentum all the way to the end, where he entered the final table second in chips with 6,400,000, not far behind Alan Gendelman who had 7,850,000.
Kocman showed no signs of slowing down and eliminated Bellis in ninth place when his ace-queen suited held against Bellis' jack-ten suited. He then went on to knock out Andrew Chang in eighth place when he won a flip with pocket eights versus Chang's ace-king.
After losing some small pots, Kocman found a timely double up with pocket queens against Gendelman's pocket jacks to propel himself into the chip lead. His stack increased even further not long after when he made a big hero call on the river to pick off Gendelman's bluff.
After Lara Eisenberg was eliminated in fourth place, a massive pot ensued between Kocman and Bradley McFarland, who was the chip leader when three-handed play began. Kocman flopped bottom set against McFarland's bottom two pair, which rocketed him to the overwhelming chip leader.
Kocman described this hand as the moment where reality set in that he could win the tournament. "At that point, you have about 22 of the 24 million chips, you don't want to count your eggs before they hatch, but felt pretty good at that point that that could be the time it would happen."
Shortly thereafter, Kocman sent McFarland to the rail in third place when his ace-jack bested McFarland's jack-ten. Heads-up play did not last long at all and the final hand of the tournament occurred when Kocman moved all in on the button and Gendelman called off his last 450,000 chips. Gendelman was ahead with king-five versus Kocman's queen-nine, but Kocman found a queen on the turn to seal the deal and be crowned as the winner.
When asked about his plans with the money and the rest of the summer, Kocman mentioned "My wife and I are planning a trip to Hawaii. Actually, after I won a little bit of money out in Vegas I said I'll put a little bit towards it. Now I'll probably have to put a little bit more towards the trip this time around but I'm okay with that."
That wraps up coverage of the $600 Kickoff Event here at the Maryland State Poker Championship. Be sure to follow PokerNews as we begin coverage on the $2,200 No-Limit Hold'em Main Event running August 9th through 12th.
