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Rick Alvarado, Nick Schulman win first, third WSOP title

Event #64: $888 Crazy Eights No-Limit Hold’em

It’s a known fact that you need to try more than once to be successful at something. As for USA’s Rick Alvarado, it took not two or three, but 6 attempts to win the 888poker-sponsored event at WSOP 2019. His 6th bullet did the trick as he went on to outlast a massive field of 10,185 entries to bag a prize of $888,888.

This is a very popular event at the World Series, and we had a big Indian contingent in there too, with 15 Indians cashing out in this tournament as compared to last year’s 6. Coming back to the winner, it was a brilliant success story, winning a prestigious WSOP title from working at a burger joint for 6 years before he quit to start playing poker.

“I’m stoked. It’s quite unbelievable. I’m thrilled. This is my biggest cash,” he said after this win. He doubled his previous career winnings and has around $1.6+ million in live cashes. It was a good series for him prior to the victory as well, with 9 previous cashes in WSOP 2019, so this was well deserved. In heads-up, he beat bracelet winner Mark Radoja.

Final Table Results:

1. Rick Alvarado – $888,888
2. Mark Radoja – $548,888
3. Thomas Drivas – $409,888
4. Vivian Saliba – $308,888
5. Aleksandras Rusinovas – $233,888
6. Patrick Clarke – $177,888
7. Vlad Darie – $136,888
8. Mario Hofler – $105,888
9. Uselis Gediminas – $82,130
10. Keun Kwak – $82,130

Event #65: $10,000 PLO8 or Better Championship

If it was Rick who won the previous tournament, it was Nick who took down this one. Here, the field was obviously not so large, with 193 entries joining in all. Nick Schulman is a US pro who is no newbie to poker, having won two bracelets before this victory as well. Here, he bagged a third bracelet and $463,670 in prize money. He is now very close to $12 million in career live cashes.

However, it came after a really long wait. It was way back in WSOP 2012 when Schulman last won a gold bracelet, so he will be very pleased. “The last seven years have seen a tremendous influx of new ideas and I’ve tried to kind of hang along with the game and here we are. I’m better but everybody’s better,” he said after beating countryman Brian Hastings to the title.

Final Table Results:

1. Nick Schulman – $463,670
2. Brian Hastings – $286,570
3. Joe Hachem – $201,041
4. Denis Strebkov – $143,700
5. Chris Vitch – $104,688
6. Corey Hochman – $77,763
7. Michael McKenna – $58,918
8. Bryce Yockey – $45,551

To know about everything happening at the 2019 World Series of Poker, ensure you stay tuned to GutshotMagazine.com.

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