Connor Drinan Wins Headliner By Completing Epic Comeback in Record Time
The GGSF Headliner-M: $400 PLO-NL, $1M GTD saw 1,962 unique players rebuy 709 times, which meant the 2,671-entry field resulted in a $1,004,296 prize pool. On Day 2, 451 players returned to action looking to play down to a winner.
After 8.5 hours of play, it was poker pro Connor Drinan walking away with the title and accompanying $127,453 first-place prize. Drinan’s win was especially impressive given he was down to just one big blind during three-handed play, but only 10 minutes later he was the last player standing.
It was a testament to the big swings involved in a pot-limit Omaha variant that featured no-limit action after the flop.
GGSF Headliner-M: $400 PLO-NL Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Connor Drinan | Canada | $127,453 |
| 2 | Mads Amot | Norway | $92,150 |
| 3 | Rui Ferreira | Brazil | $66,626 |
| 4 | Kosei Ichinose | Japan | $48,172 |
| 5 | Ami Barer | Canada | $34,830 |
| 6 | Jin “JackLuck” Su | China | $25,182 |
| 7 | Mark Berente | Hungary | $18,207 |
The top 300 finishers got paid a minimum of $929.62, and after Rainer Kempe and “yoellalaska” simultaneously bubble the tournament, the in-the-money bustouts came quick. Among those to walk away with a payday but fall short of the final table were Dzmitry Urbanovich (12th - $7,423),Joao Simao (26th - $4,756), Niklas Astedt (27th - $4,756), start-of-day chip leader Fabrizio Gonzalez (72nd - $2,265), Ankush Mandavia (92nd - $1,952), and Patrick Leonard (150th - $1,451).
After Ami Barer bowed out in fifth place, the final four players engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth affair. At one point or another, each member of the quartet looked as if they were going to win it. Eventually, Japan’s Kosei Ichinose fell to Drinan, and then just three were left.
That is when the magic happened. Mads Amot managed to double through Drinan, leaving the former with just 2,272,450 when the blinds were 1,000,000/2,000,000/250,000. Drinan seemed destined to be the third-place finisher, but then he spun it up quickly.
Within a few hands, he was up to 20 million, and then he doubled through Rui Ferreira, who he would dispatch a few hands after that. Drinan took a 3:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Amot, and it didn’t take long for him to close it out and complete an incredible comeback.
Congratulations to Connor Drinan, winner of the GGSF Headliner-M: $400 PLO-NL!