Rookie wins World Series of Poker and $10.23 million

Dan Ott, center, plays at the World Series of Poker final table at Rio hotel-casino in Las Vegas on Friday, July 21, 2017. The Englishman was in deep trouble – then virtually gone when an ace came out on the flop, and drawing dead for the ugliest beat of his life when a 10 appeared on the turn. As play closed last night, Scott Blumstein emerged as the odds-on favorite to be poker’s next World Champion. That didn’t last long, however, as Ott quickly started to best the Frenchman. However, with fairly short stacks, they knew they had an uphill battle ahead of them. On Saturday, he showed he could play cards as well as he could catch them. Piccioli, 28, took home $1.675 million. Piccioli eliminated Sinclair when his pocket aces held up against Sinclair’s jack/king of spades.

Then on the seventh hand of the night, we saw the first major chip movement.

It was reported that having made the final table, John would walk away with “at least $1 million”, an unbelievable feat for a complete amateur.

Piccioli, 28, started third in chips when the seven-man field began Friday night with almost 36 million. (35,750,000), Hesp (22,475,000), American Dan Ott (16,350,000), Damian Salas of Argentina (15,625,000) and Antoine Saout of France (14,550,000).

Blumstein also surpassed his career earnings with his first Main Event victory. Ott caught a miracle river to sent Salas out in 7th, $1,425,000 richer.

The final table of the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Texas Hold ’em World Championship will be broadcast by ESPN on a 30-minute delay beginning at 6 p.m.

“John Hesp’s 4th-place for $2.6 million is the second biggest cash ever by a British player”, Poker journalist Remko Rinkema posted.

The 64-year-old said he had “lived the dream and loved it”. Many fans and players were rooting for the Brit to win, but he couldn’t go any further than 4th.

Amazing! Only three cards would have beaten Ott. As was the story of the night, Blumstein had a huge chip lead going into heads-up play, 232.575 million to 128 million, though Ott certainly had enough chips to turn the tournament on his head of one big hand came along. That is only about four million less than the six remaining players at the table combined.

“The worst day was getting down to the three”, Gehret said.

Blumstein’s sizable lead made for a chaotic few hours, with five all-in-and-call hands playing out before Pollak’s elimination in third place. The board ran out [Js][6s][5h] on the flop to affirm Ott’s advantage. Pollak picked up an open-ended straight draw, and Blumstein still had outs with a gut-shot straight draw to possibly win the entire thing. Good hands are a cause for celebration, and so are good bluffs.

The 2017 WSOP Main Event was classy, funny, and packed with quality action from start to end.