It was a great ride, but it's definitely over - the 52nd World Series of Poker Festival has just handed over its last 88th bracelet. After the coronation of Main Event champion Koray Aldemir, many turned their attention away from Rio Casino in Las Vegas, but that was a big mistake - the end of the festival brought some very good poker and well-known champions!
The first big name is definitely Benny Glaser, a British professional who has won almost $3 million in his nearly 10-year career. In addition to them, he also had three valuable WSOP bracelets on his account, to which he successfully added a fourth. He won the $10,000 Razz Championship in the 78th Event, where he dealt with a field of 109 entries over four days and finally won his fourth bracelet - he missed it three times this year, finishing ninth, third and second in other events.
Speaking of big names, surely well-known Ole Schemion also proved his worth when he won a special 79th event - the $1,979 Hall of Fame Bounty tournament. Despite more than 16 million won, the 29-year-old Schemion has been waiting for his first bracelet, which came after a two-year absence of live success. "Live poker has been going through a really bad time lately, and I'm very happy to have been able to get back into the game in this style!"
The most expensive tournament of this year's WSOP, the $250,000 High Roller, also brought a great show for the fans. A total of 33 participants created a prize pool worth $8,217,000, from which the top five players were getting their share. In the end, the three-day event turned out best for Spanish pro Adrian Mateos, who won his fourth bracelet and $3,265,262 prize, which inflated his tournament cashes to over 25 million!
The High Roller series continued immediately, and by the time the $50k PLO had been taken by Jeremy Ausmus, the top-caliber name in the NLH format was already dominating the tournament with the same buy-in. The name is none other than Mikita Badziakouski, a Belarusian nosebleed regular who already has more than $30 million on his account. Despite this amount, he has so far been waiting for his first WSOP bracelet, which, with a prize pool of $1,462,043, he has reached from competition of 113 players. "Frankly, the bracelet is not as important to me as it is to other players. I played a lot of high rollers and a lot of final tables, where I always want the same thing - to play the best and try to win."
The second to last tournament of the whole festival was the last of the High Rollers series, this time Holdem's 100k. The three-day event attracted 64 players to the game, among whom you found perhaps every participant in the highest stakes. Although it was difficult to find a favorite at the start of the first day as the game progressed, it was quite clear - only the Australian Michael Addamo made the top spot again and entered the 6-member final as a massive chip leader (his stack was more than chips all opponents together)!
In the course of three hours, Addamo showed another incredible performance, during which he gave his opponents virtually no chance and he started the heads-up against Kevin Rabichow with a lead of 6: 1. In the first hand of the heads-up, Addamo turned K 2 against his opponent's A 6 and finally managed to win his fourth bracelet (the third he won just a month ago) and a bonus of $1,958,569, which elevated his year's tournament winnings to almost $10 million! Well, who wouldn't want to experience such a hotrun?!
Source: PokerNews.com, PokerGo.com
