“Serious poker is no more about gambling than rock climbing is about taking risks,” said Al Alvarez, but for Darius Samual the risk-taking brought him a WSOP gold bracelet last night.
The UK player put up half his bankroll to take a shot at event #6 – the $25,000 buy-in Heads-Up NLH Championship – and turned it into a glorious $500,000 victory.
The $25k Heads-up event is one of the most intriguing of all the bracelet events in Vegas, with nowhere to hide when you face the world’s best.
Online legend Ben Tollerene, highstakes cash game beast Scott Seiver, and modern-day crushers Artur Martirosian and Stephen Chidwick were all in the field of 64.
That didn’t prevent Samual from playing his A-game, however, the Brit seeing off James Chen, Ian Matakis, and Matthew Wantman before felling WSOP heads-up fan favourite John Smith in the quarter-finals.
That match was Samual’s most enjoyable, explaining afterwards: “His small ball style was a lot of fun and it lasted a long time.”
Already guaranteed a huge payday, the semi-finals saw him take down Martirosian and then face off with Faraz Jaka in the final. The pair battled to and fro but eventually Jaka was all-in and at risk…
Faraz Jaka: A♠ 6♠
Darius Samual: K♦ Q♣
Flop: K♣ A♣ Q♥
Turn: 7♣
River: 3♥
Samual, from Grimsby in England, revealed after his win: “I basically put 50 percent of my bankroll on one tournament. I really wanted to go for it and this payout is like 95 percent of my poker money now.”
He added: “I took a shot! I think I was the only one who didn’t care about the bracelet, I only cared about the money.”
| WSOP Event #6: $25,000 Heads-Up NLHE Championship Results: | |||
| Place | Place | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Darius Samual | United Kingdom | $500,000 |
| 2 | Faraz Jaka | United States | $300,000 |
| 3 | Nikolai Mamut | Russia | $180,000 |
| 4 | Artur Martirosian | Russia | $180,000 |
| 5 | John Smith | United States | $86,000 |
| 6 | Marko Grujic | Serbia | $86,000 |
| 7 | Owen Messere | United Kingdom | $86,000 |
| 8 | Patrick Kennedy | United Kingdom | $86,000 |
Elsewhere, there was plenty more action on day 5 of the 55th annual WSOP.
Event #7: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice (6-Handed)
If you know 21 different poker variants, you’re a better player than me, and Johnny “World” Hennigan used some of the nowadays less popular games to his advantage to lift his seventh career bracelet.
Hennigan explained: “I just picked stud and frankly, I’ve always been lucky in that game too, so I seem to win every pot. The younger people are, the less that they played (stud). It’s undoubtedly my best game and it’s probably low on their list.”
Hennigan, already a Poker Hall of Famer, saw off a final table that included Sweden’s Viktor Blom before defeating Robert Wells heads-up for the win.
John Hennigan is a 7-time WSOP bracelet winner!!!! pic.twitter.com/C6SVA9Uotu
— David Salituro (@DavidSalituro) June 2, 2024
| WSOP Event #7: $1,500 Dealer’s Choice Final Table Results: | |||
| Place | Place | Country | Prize |
| 1st | John Hennigan | United States | $138,296 |
| 2nd | Robert Wells | United Kingdom | $90,339 |
| 3rd | Peter Gelencser | Hungary | $60,343 |
| 4th | Viktor Blom | Sweden | $41,237 |
| 5th | Brayden Gazlay | United States | $28,845 |
| 6th | Clint Wolcyn | United States | $20,665 |
| 7th | Ryan Pedigo | United States | $15,182 |
Event #5: $1,000 Mystery Millions
The third starting flight of the ever-popular Mystery Millions saw 5290 new entries on day 1c, bringing the current total to 10,809 entries with the prizepool now sitting at $4,665,460 with day 1d today still to come.
Antonio Galiana holds the chip lead and one familiar face among the Mystery Millions masses is 2007 WSOP Main Event champion, Jerry Yang.
Event #10: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (8-Handed)
The first of the $10k Championship events got underway yesterday and Scott Seiver topped the chip counts ahead of Matt Glantz, with Chino Rheem holding a top 5 stack.
Both Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu made it through the day and will doubtless feature as day 2 kicks off.
That’s it for another day at the WSOP but we’ll be back tomorrow with the best of the action and the biggest news, so stay tuned!
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