Jonathan Cronin became the latest WPTDeepStacks champion last night after besting 372 entries in the $1,500 WPTDeepStacks Jacksonville Main Event. The player was awarded $107,386, including a $3,000 package into the WPTDeepStacks Championship, and the tournament trophy for his performance.

Despite having his ups and downs over the course of the tournament, Cronin told WPT staff afterwards that he was very happy with how he played and how he ran. The player fired two bullets during the two starting flights to eventually secure his spot among the Day 2 survivors.

The first bullet did not go well for him as he was eliminated within his first hour of play. However, bullet number two was his lucky one. Cronin shot into the tournament to eventually become the last man standing.

The player entered Day 2 of the event seventh in chips. However, by the time there were just nine players left and organizers called it a day, Cronin was among the short stacks. The eventual champion was apparently not discouraged by his diminished stack and put his confidence and the good cards that came his way to great use on Day 3.

Day 3 of the $1,500 Main Event was played on Monday at bestbet Jacksonville, one of Florida’s most popular poker hubs. Nine finalists returned at the host venue that day to play down to a champion.

Mario Oliveira was leading the pack with 1.76 million in chips. Cronin had 584,000 at the time and was second to last in the chip counts chart. The remaining hopefuls were off to a slow start as it took some time before the first elimination. Action eventually developed into a race for the title and the first-place prize.

Cronin managed to build a solid stack over the course of final table play. By the time it was just him and Adam Shuman left at the table, the soon-to-be-champion had a total of 3.535 million. However, it was actually Shuman to hold the chip lead at that point with 5.76 million.

Heads-up involved the chip lead switching hands on several occasions until Cronin assumed control one final time to never let go. On the final hand in play, Shuman raised 400,000 pre-flop and Cronin reraised to 1 million. Shuman reraised once again, this time shoving all his chips. Cronin called and flipped [Kd][Kc] to his opponent’s [Ah][10s]. A [7d][5h][2h][6c][3c] board sealed it for Cronin. Shuman took home $73,078 for his runner-up finish in the tournament.

The WPTDeepStacks $1,500 Main Event drew 372 entries and featured a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000. The top 47 finishers were paid, min-cashes starting from $2,446. Each of the players at the final table left with no less than $10,438 in prize money.

Maryland’s Live! Casino and Hotel will be the next US stop on the schedule of the WPTDeepStacks. A $1,500 Main Event with a guaranteed prize pool of $300,000 is set to take place at the Hanover, Maryland-based casino on March 23-26.

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