The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino of Las Vegas has played host to the 2017 World Series of Poker over the last few months with the most anticipated tournament of the series, the Main Event, just recently finishing up. It was a 25-year-old Scott Blumstein of New Jersey who was able to earn the first-place win during the tournament, taking home $8.15 million and his very first gold bracelet after outlasting the tough final table as the youngest player at the felt.
Blumstein was actually participating in his very first WSOP Main Event, having competed in only a few WSOP events before this win. Blumstein would begin the final table with the chip lead and after earning quite a bit from John Hesp on the first day of final table play, the would maintain the lead for the duration of the tournament.
On Saturday, it would be Blumstein, Daniel Ott and Benjamin Pollack heading back to the felt for three handed play. At this time, Blumstein would have almost 2/3 of the chips in play with Pollack handing over a good portion of his chips to Ott early on to be the short stack. Pollack would eventually be eliminated in 3rd place when he went all-in from the button, Ott called as well as Bumstein.
The board fell K-J-3 with Blumstein holding A-Q off-suit, Ott with K-9 off-suit and Pollack with Q-10 off-suit. The 4-6 on the turn and river did nothing to help Pollack who was out in third taking home $3.5 million for his efforts.
Ott and Blumstein would now face off in heads-up play with Ott at a major disadvantage. Blumstein held a massive 5 to 1 chip lead. In the end, both were all in with Ott holding A-8 of diamonds and Blumstein showing A-2 off-suit. The flop showed J-6-5 and Ott held the lead. A 7 of hearts on the turn still had Ott as the favorite to win the hand but the 2 of hearts on the river gave Blumstein the low pair and the win.
Commenting after the win to the press, Blumstein commented on how a normally inconsequential deuce had changed his life. Another WSOP Main Event is now in the record books and Blumstein’s name will now be added as one of a select few poker players who manages to earn WSOP gold by claiming the title win.
Final Results of the WSOP Main Event:
| First Place | Scott Blumstein | $8,150,000 |
| Second Place | Daniel Ott | $4,700,000 |
| Third Place | Benjamin Pollack | $3,500,000 |
| Fourth Place | John Hesp | $2,600,000 |
| Fifth Place | Antoine Saout | $2,000,000 |
| Sixth Place | Bryan Piccioli | $1,675,000 |
| Seventh Place | Damian Salas | $1,425,000 |
| Eighth Place | Jack Sinclair | $1,200,000 |
| Ninth Place | Ben Lamb | $1,000,000 |
