The World Series of Poker is now well past the half way mark in Las Vegas, with three more winner bracelets awarded in big money events to Ankush Mandavia, Steven Wolansky and “Johnny World” Hennigan.
28-year-old Steven Wolansky, a professional player from Florida, secured his nineteenth WSOP cash, his third final table and his second WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event to claim the main prize of $298,849 – one of his biggest wins yet.
2,076 entries were recorded from the event, including a large contingent of international aces looking for a share of a prize pool that reached $1,868,400, allowing 312 finishers to cash.
Wolansky fought his way through a tough final table to face California pro Wenlong Jin in the heads up, with the Florida player at a 3 to 1 disadvantage. Wolansky remained calm and disciplined as he methodically reduced Jin’s lead for over two hours before time was called and the duo returned for an unscheduled extra day.
During the final day the two evenly matched players were neck-and-neck, but Wolansky played an aggressive game that kept his opponent in a largely defensive mode, a strategy that enabled the Floridian to gain the lead and finally shut Jin down in under an hour.
For his impressive effort, Jin took home $184,631, his thirteenth WSOP cash.
Among the many notable players in the competition was Chris “Jesus” Ferguson, who quietly made his seventh cash this series.
In the $10,000 buy-in 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) Championship, veteran Las Vegas high stakes pro player “Johnny World” Hennigan claimed his fourth WSOP gold bracelet and $320,103 in prize money after winning the heads up against Belgian ace and fellow bracelet-holder Michael Gathy, whose runner up prize was a well-deserved $197,838.
Hennigan’s last bracelet came with $1.5 million when he won the 2014 WSOP $50,000 buy-in Poker Players’ Championship, but he was equally pleased with his latest piece of jewellery, claiming that winning a WSOP bracelet “never gets old.”
Hennigan faced a top-notch field of 125 players at the start of the tournament, including names like Abe Mosseri, Viacheslav Zhukov, Chris Klodnicki, and JC Tran, who finished third and won $142,547.
The third new bracelet went to Ankush Mandavia (29), who was victorious in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em (30-minute levels) event, collecting an impressive $548,139 and the first gold bracelet of his career after besting a field of 524 which generated a prize pool of $2,46 million.
It was the biggest live tournament win yet for Mandavia, a respected online high stakes player with the handle Piston 87 who hails from Georgia.
Surviving a field packed with stars and a tough final table that included fourteen bracelet-holder Phil Hellmuth, Mandavia entered the heads up phase on an even footing with Californian player Daniel Strelitz in what looked likely to be a prolonged battle.
However, in the event Mandavia quickly gained superiority and within the first fifteen minutes he sent Strelitz packing with a second place prize of $338,774.
Referencing his burgeoning live tournament career, Mandavia commented:
“I’ve had a lot of deep runs in the past, but until now had never closed the deal. So, it’s really gratifying to win. It feels really good.”