Super Main Event Crowns Pulsating WSOP Paradise Festival for GGPoker and WSOP

Five days of drama came to a conclusion on Thursday night as the biggest-ever WSOP winner came close to his 18^th WSOP bracelet, a new world record was set in the GGPoker Super Main Event and a 24-year-old poker prodigy emulated his hero and busted him from the final table on the last day of drama.

WSOP Super Main Event Won by Hinan Zhou

“I played at the final table with my idol and busted him.”

The Chinese player Hinan Zhou took home $6 million as he fulfilled a long-held dream to capture the gold bracelet they all wanted. It was the 24-year-old’s first-ever WSOP bracelet as he finished above the experienced British EPT and WSOP winner and Win-Win podcaster Liv Boeree, Aussie tournament crusher Michael Addamo, Italian poker legend Mustapha Kanit and the second most successful player in tournament history, Justin Bonomo.

With 1,978 entries, the $50m guarantee meant a top prize of $6 million and hundreds of players earning more than $50,000. In fact, eight of the nine final table players would become millionaires… or add another seven-figures to their career earnings. German player Georg Lehmann left in ninth place for $750,000 before the Belarussian player Vadzim Lipauka exited in eighth place for $1 million.

With each payout increasing the payouts dramatically, Justin Bonomo fell to short stack and busted in seventh for $1.3 million, which bumped his earnings to within just over $6 million of Bryn Kenney’s total at the top of the All-Time Money List on The Hendon Mob. Michael Addamo was a shock exit in seventh for $1.65 million, losing two big pots after the eventual winner Zhou had bluffed him off a big pot on the river.

Liv Boeree was the player to take out Addamo but after Austria’s Christopher Nguyen busted in fifth place for $2.1 million, the British player was knocked out. Twice yesterday, Boeree got it in bad with ace-high against pocket kings. Twice, she meditated during the dealing of the flop and hit an ace on those flops both times to survive. Today, the same could not be said, as she lost with pocket fours losing to the ace-eight of Marcelo Aziz. Boeree’s result, worth $2.8 million for fourth place, was the biggest single ranking event win by a female player in the history of live tournament poker.

Mustapha Kanit was unlucky to miss out in third place, cashing for $3.6m, losing with king-six to Aziz’ ace-six. Aziz went into the final showdown with the chip lead but couldn’t hold onto it, winning $4.6m as runner-up when Zhou finally got the better of him.

“I played at the final table with my idol and busted him,” Zhou told PokerNews after victory. “I’m feeling calm; when I started the final table nine-handed I [was] nervous, especially the big river bluff against Addamo. But when we got down to six, I felt very calm and enjoy this final table.”

Straver Prevents Poker Brat from Claiming 18^th WSOP Bracelet

“The last couple of years I tried to play more and more live tournaments.”

Johannes Straver won his first WSOP bracelet when he outlasted the winningest player in WSOP history at the GGMillion$ final table. Phil Hellmuth has 17 WSOP titles, six more than his nearest rival Phil Ivey and was down to the final table here in a bid to extend his record-breaking total.

Sadly for Poker Brat fans, Hellmuth never got going at the final table felt and busted in eighth place for $130,830. All he wanted was the gold and his latest near-miss might have paid for the bulk of his series but it wasn’t enough for the man who demands WSOP success more than anyone else.

After Hellmuth’s exit, players such as Arthur Conan (4^th for $370,040) and runner-up Jon Vallinas ($622,340) went close but it as the experienced Straver who finally nded not only his bracelet duck but incredibly won his first-ever ranking tournament in the process, elevating his lifetime earnings to over $4 million with victory.

“It’s quite surreal,” he said. “You never expect to just keep running through. For me, all the important all-ins I just kept turning it and it kept falling my way. Very happy that I ended up winning it. [Winning a bracelet] was a big goal. The last couple of years I tried to play more and more live tournaments. To win one is super nice.”

Two PokerStake Players Go Close in The Closer

In the 15^th and final event of the WSOP Paradise schedule, Nick Schulman won his sixth WSOP bracelet and further solidified many people in their belief that he should be the next inductee into the Poker Hall of Fame. Schulman merely acknowledged the compliment when asked afterwards declaring that it would “mean a lot” but that he was focused on playing each new tournament.

His current attitude is meeting with huge success. Schulman outlasted some massive players at the turbo final table, with Daniel Negreanu narrowly missing out on his eighth WSOP win, coming fourth for $50,800. Shaun Deeb also went close to his seventh bracelet, missing out when he came sixth for a score of $39,400. Two female players made the 10-handed final table but Ebony Kenney (10^th for $14,100) and Sosia Jiang (9^th for $18,100) both fell short, with PokerStake player Samuel Mullur also providing a terrific return for his investors, coming seventh for a result worth $30,500 – some return on his $5,000 buy-in.

Photographs by Regina Cortina and Tomas Stacha for PokerNews.