Doug Polk's chip lead crumbles, Morales and Apicella chop $1M Mayhem

On Monday at The Lodge Card Club in Austin, Texas, the final nine combatants in the Mayhem Poker Series Main Event returned to the venue to play down to a winner. The eight Day 1 starting flights drew a combined 836 entrants to generate a prize pool of $1,003,200 — narrowly eclipsing the $1 million guarantee with 91 players paid and $195,700 for the eventual winner. 

When play reached the heads-up stage, the two final players, Terry Morales and Austin Apicella, agreed to an even split of the remaining $326,750, with each player taking home $163,375 for their efforts. The entirety of the final table streamed live on The Lodge YouTube channel and the full replay remains available for rewatch below. 

Polk extends lead early, Hickey and 'Vu' bow out

The Lodge Card Club co-owner Doug Polk came into the final table with the chip lead and quickly increased the distance between himself and his nearest competitor in the counts, Jayphong 'JWin' Nguyen. On the very first hand off of the deck, Polk raised before Nguyen, next to act, three-bet with . When the action folded back around to him, Polk made the call to see the flop. 

With his top pair and draw to the nut flush, Nguyen continued once checked to and Polk called once again, playing his flopped flush slowly. On the turn , Nguyen bet small once again and Polk continued to play his hand sneakily with just a call. The river didn't change much, but Nguyen wisely exercised caution and checked back with his showdown value, only to see the bad news. The sizable infusion of chips extended Polk's lead early, but there was a long way to go. 

After starting the final table in the middle of the pack, Jason Hickey's stack took a hit when his pocket aces failed to hold against Elvin Simpson's pocket kings on a runout in a key all-in confrontation. Shortly after, Hickey moved all-in with and ran smack into Apicella's . The flop and turn provided Hickey a chance to crack aces this time, coming down to give him outs to a straight. On the river , Hickey made a no-good top pair and his run came to an end in ninth place. 

Han 'Vu' Nguyen, the defending champion of Mayhem Poker Series Main Event, committed the remainder of his short stack with against a button open and found himself in good shape against Rahul Sabbineni's . The runout left Nguyen's hand second-best, however, and his day ended in an eighth-place finish. 

Jolly out in 7th, Polk and Sabbineni follow  

With a little more than ten big blinds remaining, Brant Jolly looked down at on the button and, once the action folded to him, moved all in. Apicella re-shoved with and the big blind fled the scene to take the two players to one of poker's classic flips. The flop left Jolly in need of two immediate outs, but the turn and river failed to provide, ending his run in seventh place. 

Polk, having sent the majority of his stack to Morales in two key pots, found himself all-in and at risk next after starting the final table with the chip lead. Facing an open from Morales, Polk moved all in from the small blind with . It was a big spot and Morales took his time to think it through before eventually he called with his dominating hand. 

Doug Polk saw an unfavorable turn card to end his run.

On the flop, however, Polk connected with one of his three immediate outs to take a commanding lead in the hand and leave Morales looking for a three-outer of his own. The turn saw the lead swing back to Morales as he surged in front. The changed nothing and, despite his strong start, Polk crashed out in sixth place. 

With the blinds on the rise, Sabbineni made an ill-timed attempt to steal when he moved all-in with from under the gun. Simpson looked down at in the small blind and moved all-in over the top, just barely covering his opponent. The runout offered no connection whatsoever to Sabbineni and his run ended in a fifth-place finish. 

Simpson and Nguyen exit, Morales and Apicella chop

Despite the infusion of chips from eliminating Sabbineni, Simpson fell to the short stack as four-handed play wore on. With less than four big blinds remaining, Simpson moved all-in with over the top of an open from Apicella. This time, the big stack had it and Simpson was in rough shape against Apicella's . The runout offered no help to Simpson and his run ended in fourth place. 

Nguyen, now the short stack by a wide margin, committed the last of his chips with and both Morales and Apicella made the call – intent on laddering up. The two big stacks connected with the flop, but Morales' had Apicella's in rough shape. In the face of a sizable bet from his opponent, however, Apicella tossed his cards into the muck to avoid disaster and left Morales to finish off Nguyen. The turn and river failed to provide Nguyen with the two-outer he required and he headed to the payout desk to collect his third-place cash. 

With Nguyen gone, Morales and Apicella took a break to discuss a potential deal before starting heads-up play. The two players agreed to an even split of the remaining prize pool and walked away with $163,375 apiece. 

The Lodge Card Club Mayhem Poker Series Main Event final table results

^{*denotes heads-up deal}