Will Failla wins historic Heartland Poker Tour event

This weekend the Heartland Poker Tour hosted its 100^th Main Event, and fittingly the tournament was won by one of the top tournament players in poker, Will “The Thrill” Failla. Failla triumphed over the 328 player field to win nearly $120,000, and if it wasn’t for fellow poker pro Allen Kessler, Failla wouldn’t have even been in attendance! As Failla put it: “Allen Kessler dragged me here… Everyone needs an Allen Kessler in their life.”

Failla, who won a WPT title in 2012 (putting him on the poker radar) wasn’t the only big name at the HPT Main Event at the River City Casino and Lumiere Park Casino in St. Louis, Missouri. In addition to Failla, Former WSOP Main Event winners Phil Hellmuth, Chris Moneymaker, and Greg Raymer were also in attendance, as was Allen Kessler of course.

Here is a look at how the final table of the 100^th Heartland Poker Tour Main Event played out in St. Louis:

• 1st: Will Failla - $119,064
• 2nd: Brian Nguyen - $67,390
• 3rd: William Matula - $42,863
• 4th: Gary Lambert - $36,910
• 5th: Robin Parks - $28,575
• 6th: Henry Osterkamp - $23,337

Few people would have expected the Heartland Poker Tour to make it to event #100 when the tour was created in 2005, and even fewer would have expected the 100^th tournament on the HPT to be big news in the poker world. But the HPT proved all of the naysayers wrong, and turned small-scale tournament series in out of the way locales into well-known and well-attended tournaments thanks to a relentless marketing campaign, sticking to their guns, and a TV deal that puts the HPT on network television –making the tournaments all the more attractive to both amateurs and professionals.

The HPT is now considered on par with WSOP Circuit Series tournaments, and is one of the few upstart tournament series to gain any traction in the US since the poker boom back in 2003. Tournament series like the PokerStars NAPT and the Epic Poker League lasted less than five tournaments each before folding, while virtually every other tournament series created since the boom still wallows away in obscurity.

Back in January Heartland Poker Tour co-founder Greg Lang talked about the historic 100^th tournament, saying: “The heartland has been good to us. We’re pleased to bring our centennial celebration right into the backyard of our most loyal supporters.”

The HPT was purchased by Federated Sports +Gaming (the parent company of the Epic Poker League) last year, and after FS+G’s recent Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filing it has come to light that the HPT is still owed significant amounts of money from FS+G. That said, it appears that the HPT will just continue along, and my best guess is that when FS+G cannot make good on their payments the Heartland Poker Tour will revert back to the original ownership, which is still in place in executive roles with the company.