Colby Covington may not have known when to fold ’em in the end, but he still seemed to mostly play his cards right.
Covington, a former UFC interim welterweight champion and multi-time title challenger, finished a major South Florida poker tournament in seventh place Monday and cashed for nearly $50,000 in prize money on a $400 buy-in.
Covington made the final table of the Seminole Hard Rock Casino’s $400 Deep Stack No-Limit Hold’em event in Hollywood, Fla. He went all in with an Ace of hearts and 8 of diamonds against Tommy Morgado, who had an A-K of diamonds when they turned their cards over. Neither player got any help from the cards on the table, so Morgado’s King beat Covington’s 8 to eliminate him, according to Seminole Hard Rock‘s coverage of the event (H/T to Fox Sports 640-AM’s Andy Slater via Twitter).
According to the casino, there were more than 7,700 entries in the tournament, which had a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. Covington’s share for seventh place was $48,298. Morgado, who eliminated Covington when they went head to head, finished second and took home nearly $187,000 when the final five players reached a deal to split the prize pot based on their chip holdings.
Covington (17-3 MMA, 12-3 UFC) in March beat former friend and ex-teammate Jorge Masvidal with a unanimous decision at UFC 272 in one of the most public feuds in UFC history. That got him back in the win column after a title shot decision loss to welterweight champ Kamaru Usman in November 2021 in a rematch.
A little more than two weeks after Covington beat Masvidal, he allegedly was assaulted by him outside a Miami Beach restaurant. He reportedly suffered a broken tooth in the alleged incident. Masvidal was arrested and charged with aggravated battery and criminal mischief, and his pre-trial hearing and trial are scheduled for later this month.
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