Glen Witmer(credit: World Poker Tour)
454 players took to the Great White North to take part in the World Poker Tour’s North American Poker Championship. Each wanted the entire $1,090,589 first place prize for themselves and came from the United States to do so. Over six days of poker, with three day ones, the field was whittled down to six. A Canadian amateur by the name of Glen Witmer, a 67 year old retiree, had the chip lead with more than 3.7 million of the big ones in his stack.
In the end, Witmer, an affable enough fellow, outlasted a tough field which included both Kathy Liebert, the top female tournament player in the world, and Marc Karam, an Ottawa resident with more than $2.3 million in lifetime earnings. He faced former World Poker Tour champion Gavin Smith (2005 Mirage Poker Showdown) in heads-up play.
Witmer began the heads-up match-up with a 3-to-1 advantage. At one point, he got his stack up to 5.5 million. However, it wasn’t enough to overcome Witmer. On the 49th hand of heads-up play, Griffin put all his chips in with 5d, 5h and Witmer made the call with As,Kh. The board came down: Qd, Jd, 2h, Jd, Ad. The river sealed Smith’s fate and Witmer walked away with the WPT title.
Here are the final results:
1) Glen Witmer -- $1,090,589
2) Gavin Smith -- $532,545
3) Kathy Liebert -- $277,684
4) Ryan Fisler -- $228,234
5) Marc Karam -- $171,175
6) James Trenholm -- $133,137
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