Stephen Song is no longer just a very good poker player, he’s up there with the best in the world. Early on Thursday morning, Stephen Song closed out a spectacular back-and-forth heads-up battle with Sean Winter to with the North American Poker Tour (NAPT) $25,000 Super High Roller.
Song emerged from the 60-entry field to claim the $439,400 top prize, about two months after winning another prolific PokerStars tournament – the EPT Barcelona Main Event for €1,290,386 (over $1.4M).
With his latest triumph, Song has secured his fifth six-figure score since July and has claimed a place in the top-200 on poker’s all-time money list, taking his career earnings to over $8.5M.
Despite not competing in many prolific events with $25,000+ buy-ins such as Triton and the PokerGO Tour, Song in the thick of the GPI Player of the Year race, currently in 5th place, according to the latest update on The Hendon Mob.
After his exciting heads-up duel, Song was both relieved and thrilled to take home the famous Spade.
“I mean, it feels really good to win a tournament,” Song told PokerNews. “It’s a tough field, too. I had to battle some of the best players in the country or even the world, so yeah, it felt really good.”
“Sean’s super tough and that heads-up was grueling, it swung back-and-forth.
“It really all came down to that king-eight ballsy call I made. It’s a tournament, so anything can happen, I’m just grateful that it worked out perfectly.”
| Place | Player | Prize | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stephen Song | $439,400 | United States |
| 2 | Sean Winter | $288,100 | United States |
| 3 | Edward Sebesta | $208,900 | United States |
| 4 | James Collopy | $158,500 | United States |
| 5 | Elias Gutierrez | $122,500 | Spain |
| 6 | Thomas Eychenne | $93,600 | France |
| 7 | Brock Wilson | $72,000 | United States |
| 8 | Paul Jager | $57,600 | United States |
Song entered the third and final day with a massive chip-lead four-handed, holding well over 50% of the chips in play. He quickly dispatched James Collopy thanks to some good fortune, turning a four with ace-four against Collopy’s ace-queen.
Sean Winter would find himself down to just two bigs during three-handed play but won a pair of all ins to get back into it. Eventually, Winter would overtake Edward Sebesta for second place before Song went back to work.
Song would get in pocket tens against Sebesta’s ace-king and win the flip to take a two-to-one chip lead going into heads-up play.
While Winter would battle back to take a two-to-one chip lead himself, Song would make a giant hero call to take hold of 80% of the chips in play.
In a limped pot on a J♣10♥6♠ flop, Winter would bet 400,000 (2bbs), only to be met by a Song check-raise to 1,300,000. Winter called.
The 9♦ caused both players to check before the K♠ river saw winter fire out a huge bet of 2,400,000. With four to a straight out there, Song used a large number of time banks before correctly calling off with K♣8♠, triumphing over Winter’s J♠5♦.
Winter would make yet another comeback and double up before finding himself back down to 2,475,000, just under 10 big blinds. Song jammed his A♣9♠ and was called off by the Q♥5♥ of Winter.
Winter would be dead on the turn as the board ran out 10♦A♦9♣7♠J♣ to give Song the victory.