The suspense of who would be crowned the World Series of Poker Main Event champion ended last night – nearly four months after the tournament started at the Rio. The November Nine began battling for the bulk of the $64 million in prize money on Monday and action concluded with the youngest champion ever being crowned. Here’s how everything went down:
Craig Marquis 9th place – $900,670
Kelly Kim was by far the odds on favorite to go out of the tournament first since he was over 7,000,000 chips behind everyone else. However, Craig Marquis was looking to make a move to get out of eighth place when he went all-in against Scott Montgomery with pocket 7’s. Marquis would get another 7 when the flop hit 10-A-7 which gave Craig a set and the advantage. However, Scott Montgomery held A-Q and the board read 10-A-7-J-K in the end giving Montgomery a straight which knocked Marquis out.
Kelly Kim 8th place - $1,286,672
Kim wasn’t far behind Marquis as he went all-in in a multi-pot with Ylon Schwartz, Darius Suharto, and Ivan Demidov. Demidov would end up winning the hand with a pair of 9’s while Suharto won the side pot with a pair of 9’s and 10 kicker. Kim didn’t have much of a hand since he couldn’t beat the nines on the table and mucked his cards.
David “Chino” Rheem 7th place - $1,769,177
Chino Rheem was not in good shape at this point since he’d lost some big hands earlier and was merely looking to stay on the table. He got an excellent hand in the way of A-K and went all-in only to be called by Peter Eastgate who had A-Q. Unfortunately for Rheem, neither ace nor king ever hit the board when it played out to be Q-5-7-9-4 and Eastgate sent him to the rail with Q’s.
Darus Suharto 6th place - $2,412,510
Possibly looking to steal the pot pre-flop from Scott Montgomery, Darus Suharto went all-in with Ah-8c just after Montgomery raised with As-Qd. Unfortunately for Suharto, Montgomery’s much better hand became a nut flush when the board hit K-J-2-4-4 with the first four cards being spades. Since his ace was a spade, Montgomery sent Suharto packing with an ace-high flush.
Scott Montgomery 5th place - $3,088,013
After knocking Suharto out, Montgomery took over the chip lead and had some momentum going; but this momentum came to a screeching halt when he lost a big pot to Ivan Demidov. With his chip stack down and him now out of the lead, Montgomery went all-in with A-3. Amazingly, Peter Eastgate called him with pocket 6’s – which was looking like a very bad move when the first four cards were A-Q-4-A. The only thing that could save Eastgate was a full house (needed a 6) and he got his 6 on the river to knock Montgomery out in 5th.
Ylon Schwartz 4th place - $3,763,516
A lot of the early coverage of the WSOP Main Event focused on Schwartz and his extensive chess background which included hustling people in New York City parks. But he couldn’t hustle his way out of a hand where he went all-in against Peter Eastgate with A-10. The board showed K-A-2-K and Eastgate’s pocket 5’s would be made into a full house when another 5 landed on the river.
Dennis Philips 3rd place - $4,503,352
Philips was the chip leader coming into this final table and probably had the biggest crowd behind him Monday night. But the crowd wasn’t much help on his bluff of 9-10 on a J-4-3 flop – especially with Peter Eastgate already holding pocket 3’s! Philips run was all but over since he needed either two 10’s or two 9’s to win the hand. He got one nine but that was it and he busted out in 3rd.
Heads-up: Ivan Demidov vs. Peter Eastgate
Ivan Demidov already made history by making it to the final tables of both the WSOPE Main Event and the WSOP Main Event this year. Peter Eastgate was looking to make some history of his own by becoming the youngest WSOP champion ever at the age of 22 (Phil Hellmuth had the record at 24 years of age). Here’s how the chips looked going into the match up:
Peter Eastgate 79,500,000
Ivan Demidov 57,725,000
The action began with some pretty conservative play and Demidov was able to whittle the chip lead down to even. Eventually, Demidov would capture the chip lead with some brilliant play but it was short-lived as Eastgate grabbed it back and began to pull away. Demidov was desperately looking for a way to get back into things and went all-in with 2-K-3-4-7 on the board with 4-2 in his hand.
Eastgate made the call and showed A-5 for a wheel straight of A-2-3-4-5. After ending the heads-up duel, Eastgate became the youngest WSOP champ ever and broke Phil Hellmuth’s record by a full two years. More important though, Eastgate won $9,119,338 for first place while Demidov took home $5,790,024 for second place.
