"It means a lot and I now have a great opportunity to challenge myself as player of the year."
Out of 568 participants in yesterday's event #6, the $5,000 mixed no-limit holdham/pot limit omaha is only one left when the dust settles after 26 hours of play over two days.
Obviously, there was a huge start to Michael Moncek's 2023 World Series of Poker for Michael Moncek. Second place went all the way to the final, with Fernando Habegger taking the chip lead. Habegger received $330,344 for his brave efforts.
Falkorgo interviewed Moncek shortly after he rang the bell of victory. Moncek said, "It means a lot and I now have a great opportunity to challenge myself as player of the year." "Excited to win a bracelet in the first week."
Michael Moncek is used to winning. He has three WSOP circuit rings and is not the first time for a bracelet. It also won the 2022 World Series of Poker event #13: $1,500 Limit Hold last year.
Many skilled applicants were successful until the first day, but not enough. Brian Last won just three in money at level 17. Daniel Negrianu defeated Jeremy Ausmus (No. 86 - $8,000) at level 18. Dylan Weissman (74th - $8,000) turned cash after a huge success in the tournament. Negrianu later went bankrupt without finding the bag (63rd - $8,750). On the second day, Martin Zamani was eliminated 21st in the fair over fair (21st - $17,826). Yuval Bronstein (9th - $41,521), a two-time bracelet winner, finished ninth in the unofficial final table.
Dec Ferenc is a Hungarian player with cash in Las Vegas dating back to 2011. On the bubble of the last table, he worked a short stack, stealing blinds at every opportunity possible in the PLO and NLH rounds. Unfortunately, he ended up cracking his ace in the PLO when the card was on the back and finished eighth.
Not long after that, the players took a break and moved to the poker GO function table when they returned.
Christine Foxen, who is not familiar with lighting and cameras, could be considered a chip leader from the early hours of the first day. After losing a big hand to Livingston, he left her with just 390,000 chips with a limp Jax blind vs. blind. She was eliminated in 7th place soon.
Tyler Brown was respected by Sean Div on day one, but was eventually eliminated in sixth place when Monsk lost the set against him on the river.
Longtime grinder player Christian Harder dropped to fifth when he got his last 2 million chips against Livingston Freeflop. Harder went on to say he was still looking for hardware and would try again tomorrow.
Michael Banducci, who won the 2008 NLH bracelet, was looking for a rematch 15 years later, but Harbeger's great slickness outpaced him in over 6 million pots. Banducci should be satisfied with fifth place this time.
Alex Livingston was also competing for a new gem when he jumped on Habeger's journey and lost a large chunk of his luggage. It was Monsek who fired the last shot, and Livingston left to settle for bronze.
Earlier in the race, Monsec recorded 7,480,000 for Habeger, 20.9 million units. Monsec stayed aggressive and lowered Harbeger to 4,450,000 but was able to find a double as Harbeger jagged from the small blind. Harbeger doubled again with Omaha hands when he folded the top pair, but he could never regain the chip lead. Finally, Harbeger got his hands on a $2,100,000 chip, and put a pair in the right ace and Omaha hands.
Congratulations once again to Mr. Monsek for his wonderful start to the Poker World Series, defeating Habeger with kings full of Jack.
Final Table Results: Payments by Player Country (USD) 1 Michael Monsec US$534,499 2 Fernando Habeger Switzerland $330,344 3 Alex Livingston Canada $235,062 4 Michael Banducci US$169,674 5 Christian Harder U.S.$124,266 6 Tyler Brown US$92,362 7 Kristen Fox is priced at $69,683 in the United States 8 Ferenc Dijk Hungary $53,377