Event #8: $400 No-Limt Hold'em Monster Stack

Nashville, Tennessee's Justin Harvell has emerged as the winner of the Monster Stack tournament (Event #8, $400 No-Limit Hold'em) at Circuit Coconut Creek. Harvell earned his first career Circuit ring and $37,914 after dominating most of the Monster Stack's final-table action. 

Harvell's win was secured against the last of several short-stacked players in his path, Lancaster, Ohio's Alan Wentz. In the event's final hand, with Harvell holding an 8:1 edge, Wentz moved all in with   , and Harvell called with   . A highly improbable     flop gave Wentz a flush while also giving Harvell two pair. An   turn gave Harvell a full house, but still left Wentz two outs to the straight flush and double-up. Instead, the river was the  , sealing Harvell's first Circuit win.

Wentz earned $23,446 as the runner-up. Palm Bay, Florida's Brandon Miller placed third for $17,145.

The well-liked Harvell has battled hard to collect that first gold Circuit ring, and he's come close numerous times. Before this event, he'd made 10 previous Circuit final tables, finishing sixth or higher each time, including three seconds and three thirds. One of those second-place finishes came in this same event one year ago, when he held the lead but was unable to close out the win.

Harvell started near the top in this Event's Day 2 as well, even though most of his Day 1 was a struggle. "I spent like seven hours under 20 big [blinds]," he said. "For a good part of Day 1 I was short-stacked." On Day 2, though, momentum swung his way, and by the time the field was winnowed to 14 Harvell had taken the lead, which he held to the end.

His big lead allowed him to keep the heat on numerous short-stacked opponents during the late going, and eliminated five of his eight final-table foes. "I was really thankful to have some short stacks at the final table. Because of that I was able to do some things and use my big stack to my advantage." One of the tiniest stacks of all at one point was eventual runner-up Wentz, who was down to less than one small blind at one point before climbing back up to second place.

Here, though, the win went to Harvell, ending that ringless drought. “I’m just so happy,” Harvell said. “That’s the main thing. I’m just really happy I finally won and now I can build up from here.”

Play has ended for the night on Day 1 in the Monster Stack, just inside the money bubble with 59 players remaining. Voitto Rintala leads the final 59 with 837,000 in chips.

Chip counts for all remaining players are now available under the "Reports" tab above.

Event #8 at Circuit Coconut Creek, $400 No-Limit Hold'em, begins at 11 am. This event includes the following features:

• $100,000 prizepool guarantee
• 30,000 in starting chips
• 30-minute levels through Level 22; 45-minute levels thereafter
• Late registration until the beginning of Level 13
• Day 2 begins at 1 pm on Wednesday

Prizepool info will be available later today.