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Blumstein managed to top the over 7,200-player field and claim the poker world championship title after defeating Dan Ott heads-up. He won $8.15 million along with his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Play began at the final table on Thursday with two large stacks in the lead: the eventual world champion Scott Blumstein with 122 BBs and a recreational player from Birdington, UK John Hesp with 107 BBs. Hesp took over the lead but he lost most of his chips to the other big stack, Blumstein when he turned top two pair while his opponent having top set, and went all-in. From that point onward Blumstein broke away from the field so far his victory was very likely, at some point even having more than 60% of the chips in play in front of him.
After the French Benjamin Pollak busted in third place the heads-up stage started with Blumstein having an almost 2:1 chiplead over his opponent, Dan Ott.
After about 4 hours of one-on-one action Blumstein got dealt A2 off and limped from the button and Ott raised to about 2.5 BBs with A8 suited of diamonds. Then Blumstein limp-reraised all-in, which Ott called after some tanking.
It was the right call, as his hand had over 56% equity over Blumstein's, whose holding only had 22% while there being a 20% chance for a chopped pot.
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The flop came J65, no diamond, the turn was an off-suit 7 so it looked like Ott's better kicker would hold, that is until the 2 of hearts fell on the river - giving Scott Blumstein, a New Jersey resident with a degree in accounting his first WSOP title and the $8.15 million grand prize.
World Series of Poker No-limit Hold'em MAIN EVENT - World Championship, the final table's results:
1. SCOTT BLUMSTEIN (USA) - won $8.15 million
2. Dan Ott (USA) - $4.7 million
3. Benjamin Pollak (France) - $3.5 million
4. John Hesp (UK) - $2.6 million
5. Antoine Saout (France) - $2 million
6. Bryan Piccioli (US) - $1.675 million
7. Damien Salas (Argentina) - $1.425 million
8. Jack SInclair (UK) - $1.2 million
9. Ben Lamb (USA) - $1 million