Top international poker pro Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari has added a World Series of Poker Circuit gold winner’s ring to his bulging tournament trophy cabinet, along with $226,785 in prize money after besting a field of 756 entrants to win the $1,675 buy-in 2016 WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino main event in Los Angeles.
Esfandiari faced 2006 World Series of Poker main event champion Jamie Gold in the heads up, but it was a relatively brief affair due to the Magician’s massive 11 to 1 chip lead.
Gold made a valiant attempt at a come-back with a double up early on, but it was not enough to prevent the inevitable as Esfandiari coolly leveraged his chip advantage into a win, sending Gold home with a consolatory runner up prize of $139,820.
Other final table cashes included:
Barry Woods $103,080
Ray Henson $76,830
Alexander Greenblatt $58,025
Bryn Kenney $44,395
Blaise Hom $34,395
Ludovic Geilich $26,980
Jackduyph Duong $21,420
In related news, The Pokerstars Sunday Million online tourney attracted 7,124 entrants, generating a prize pool of $1,424,800 – well over the guarantee, ensuring that 1,080 places cashed.
It was won by young Brazilian poker pro João “XxJoaoFeraxX” Otávio after an eleven-and-a-half hour competition that rewarded him with the top prize of $213,724.92.
Otávio started final table action in charge with 17 million chips and never really let the lead go, holding a huge 58 million stack going into the heads up against his last opponent, Canadian player “extragloves” who held a relatively meagre 12,884,978 chips.
The finale took just 20 hands before Otávio lowered the boom and eliminated the last obstacle to his victory, sending “extragloves” home with a second placing cash of $157,255.17.
The rest of the final table cashed as follows:
gimpshow (Canada) $113,984.00
LStrelec (Russia) $75,514.40
Matt “OffTh3Radar” Davenport (United Kingdom) $58,416.80
rodloiola (Brazil) $44,168.80
navebit83 (Israel) $30,633.20
omeriko (Israel) $17,097.60
Calaviero (Netherlands) $11,042.20