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WSOP 2019: Brian Green, Nicholas Haynes win first two bracelets

The wait ended a couple of days back as the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) kicked off in Las Vegas, this time being a special event with 89 gold bracelets being given away – a WSOP record. The festivities are to mark the 50th anniversary of the World Series and as of today, we’ve already had a couple of tournaments declaring their winners at the Rio All Suites Hotel.

Event #1: $500 Casino Employees Event

As usual, the series begins with the casino employees event each year and this year, it was Michigan’s Nicholas Haynes who got past a field of 686 players to take down the tournament, winning $62,345 and his first ever WSOP gold bracelet. He is a dealer at Aria since the last year and a half and here, he defeated WSOP Media Director, Isaac Hanson in heads-up.

Talking about this maiden WSOP victory, Haynes said, “I’m thankful for my job and the players at Aria. There’s a lot of incredible players. I watch them and just pick up little bits here and there. Over time, you just become better; you sharpen your edges. I feel like they were very instrumental in my play today. That’s why I’m thankful for my job and the players there.”

Final Table results:

1. Nicholas Haynes – $62,345
2. Isaac Hanson – $38,503
3. Jorge Ruiz – $26,681
4. Jesse Kertland – $18,785
5. Adam Lamers – $13,441
6. Jeffrey Fast – $9,776
7. Christopher Bowen – $7,229
8. Joseph Appler – $5,438
9. Travis Williams – $4,161

Event #2: $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty

Another event and another player to win his first ever gold bracelet. However, they buy-in was a massive $10k and this was in fact the first tournament to conclude in WSOP 2019. Brian Green emerged on top of a field of 204 entries to bag the biggest prize of $345,669. In heads-up, he beat his friend and 2018’s Breakout Player of the Year, Ali Imsirovic. Quite a few big names in poker were a part of this tournament, including Daniel Negreanu who finished 6th.

Talking about bagging a bracelet finally, Green said, “It kind of gets the monkey off my back. Now I can play poker without having that on my mind. I tend to do well when I play pro-heavy fields… I know most of the guys who play $10ks are pretty good players. In a turbo, though, there’s a lot of flipping too, not a lot of postflop poker. Still, a win’s a win, it’s hard to win a poker tournament.”

Final Table results:

1. Brian Green – $345,669
2. Ali Imsirovic – $213,644
3. Asher Conniff – $145,097
4. Loren Klein – $100,775
5. Ping Liu – $71,614
6. Daniel Negreanu – $52,099
7. Martijn Gerrits – $38,823
8. Zachary Clark – $29,650
9. Cary Katz – $23,224

For more updates on WSOP 2019 and other major poker stories from across the world, keep following GutshotMagazine.com.

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