The damage was all done in the penultimate hand — just as the stacks had achieved parity. With fewer than 30 big blinds in play, it was a simple task to get them in, with Starny Hoang holding and Ulei Munoz .
The board to the turn was but just as Hoang was contemplating a second place finish, the dealer peeled the , giving him a straight.
But the intrigue wasn’t over. With both players having the same amount of 25k chips, the dealer began counting down the green 5k ones. When the dust settled, Munoz was found to have just four more — a stack of 20,000 which was less than a single big blind.
It was always going to be a tough ask from there but Hoang didn’t prolong the agony, repeating the rivered straight trick on the very next hand.
Ulei Munoz:
Starny Hoang:
Board:
Hoang’s relentless aggression had finally paid off and he makes for a deserving winner of the inaugural Deaf Championship at the Irish Open.
