This year’s North American Poker Tour by PokerStars was a success in more ways than one, but the Main Event was the crown jewel of the festival. Attracting 895 entries, the tournament ended up with a prize pool of $4,340,800.
This amount didn’t just blow the original guarantee of $3,000,000 out of the water, but it also made the 2024 NAPT Main Event the richest-ever. Until now, that record was held by the 2010 tournament that took place at the Venetian, when the prize pool just eclipsed $4,000,000.
The lion’s share of the record-breaking prize pool went to a UK pro, Nick Marchington. The 26-year-old managed to wrap up the final table in record time, claiming the prestigious title and picking up $765,200 to go with it.
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Marching Over Tough Competition
The Englishmen came into the final table of six with a chip lead and determination to take the title home. It was anyone’s guess how long it would take to crown the NAPT Main Event winner once play got underway, but Marchington surprised everyone as he was holding the most desirable of all spade-shaped trophies not even six hours later.
The start of the final table certainly wasn’t suggesting it would be a quick affair. For the first three hours, players exchanged blows, and chips moved around, but none of the six were eager to leave their seats.
It was Japan’s Masato Yokosawa who opened the floodgates, as his pocket tens were no match for Marchington’s jacks. Shortly after, Carl Kohlberg followed in his footsteps as his big slick failed to improve against Joel Micka’s pocket pair.
Micka was responsible for the next elimination, too, as he sent Marco Johnson to the rail, cutting the final table in half.
Jeff Madsen was the official short stack at this point, but he proved himself a tough nut to crack. He managed to get right back into the game, largely at Micka’s expense, but it wasn’t enough.
In his last hand, Madsen got his chips in the middle as a big favorite, holding pocket queens against A-T of Joel Micka, but the dealer pulled a Barry Greenstein on the river to deny him a shot at the title.
It was down to Micka and Marchington, with the latter holding a huge chip lead to start heads-up play. And the start was also the finish, as it took all of one hand to wrap things up in Las Vegas.
All chips went into the middle on the river, and, true to form, Marchngton held the nuts while Micka rivered a lower straight to seal his fate. Just like that, it was all over, some six hours from the moment the first hand of the final table was dealt.
Nick Marchington is the 2024 NAPT Main Event winner, taking home $765,200, while the runner-up, Joel Micka, banked $478,450. Interestingly enough, Micka is now three for three in PokerStars live events, having finished a runner-up in LAPT and PCA events prior to this.
NAPT 2024 Main Event Final Table Results
| Position | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Marchington | UK | $765,200 |
| 2 | Joel Micka | USA | $478,450 |
| 3 | Jeff Madsen | USA | $341,750 |
| 4 | Marco Johnson | USA | $262,900 |
| 5 | Carl Kohlberg | USA | $202,250 |
| 6 | Masato Yokosawa | Japan | $155,550 |
The 2024 NAPT Delivers Abundantly
The 2024 North American Poker Tour wraps up in style, and PokerStars can be more than happy with the success of the festival.
While the focus is usually on the big winners, it is important to mention that there were 115 players who won their NAPT Gold Passes and got to play in the Main Event. Of these 115, 20 made it into the money, walking away with $240,600 in total prizes.
This is a great indicator that the company’s recently announced plans to introduce Power Path for the North American market will be welcomed by the players, allowing them to secure their seats in numerous PokerStars Live events worldwide.
This year’s NAPT is over, but it has been confirmed already the festival will come back to Las Vegas in 2025, even bigger and better. Records are there to be broken, and PokerStars has certainly shown the world it’s not afraid to challenge and move the limits in live and online poker alike.
