Right up until the end, Woodbridge, Connecticut’s James Magner was living the dream of every small buy-in tournament poker player that exists: tossing chips around with the big boys, taking down seven-figure pots, and dreaming of being poker’s next World Champion. Although those dreams would end for Magner in 27th place on Day 7 of the 2015 World Series of Poker Main Event, the ride for Magner was well worth the week spent in Las Vegas.

—

Tournament Poker Edgeis the only poker training site dedicated exclusively to MTTs and features over 1,000 training videos, blogs, articles, podcasts and a dedicated strategy forum for members. Check Tournament Poker Edge out on Twitter.

—

Magner is a staple of the Northeast tournament poker scene, frequenting both Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun in Connecticut. His first ever tournament poker cash came in 2010 when he finished 15th in a small buy-in tournament at Mohegan Sun. Within three years, Magner had worked on his game enough to final table the Foxwoods World Poker Finals Main Event, eventually finishing sixth for a $32,443 payday.

That was his largest tournament cash until Day 7 of the WSOP Main Event, when Magner earned a six-figure score ($262,574) and nearly quintupled his career tournament poker earnings ($57,929 prior to the 2015 WSOP).

Magner came into the action on Day 7 amongst the bottom of the 27 players remaining. With 3.5 million chips, he was only ahead of four players. Pretty much everyone mentioned above had at least a chip in what would be Magner’s final hand.

After Mario Sequeiraopened for 350,000 from early position, Magner and Anton Morgensterncalled from the hijack and the button. That wasn’t good enough for Patrick Chan, who three-bet to 1.2 million and only found a willing participant in Magner.

After the dealer fanned the J-Q-4 flop, Magner committed the amateur mistake of announcing all-in out of turn. The verbal declaration binding, Chan officially checked the action to Magner and immediately called once the formality of Magner’s all-in was established.

When the cards were tabled, both men had something to work with. Magner’s K-10 was looking for the completion of an open-ended straight draw or a king, while Chan had an A-10 for a gutshot straight draw and the lead post-flop.

A trey brought more hope for Magner as he now had four to the flush, but a queen on the river didn’t help anyone, keeping Chan in the lead and eliminating Magner in 27th place. Despite his early dismissal on the final day of play at the 2015 WSOP Main Event, Magner has to be proud of his performance.