Rob Wazwaz Ships Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack For $358,346
Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack has come to a close. After two days of tournament poker 4,062 entrants were whittled down to just one, with Rajaee Wazwaz taking down the tournament and his first World Series of Poker bracelet for $358,346.
He told PokerNews that his name is actually Rob Wazwaz, but there was an error with his name at some point when signing up for tournaments with his card. Either way, he has just won his first bracelet.
The $2,859,648 prizepool ensured the final four players earned over $100,000 each. They entered the day with 240 remaining, and they played down from 1:00 p.m. local time to crown a champion at 02:30 a.m. the following day, over 13 hours later.
Event #25: $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rajaee "Rob" Wazwaz | United States | $358,346 |
| 2 | Robert Crow | United States | $221,399 |
| 3 | Terence Reid | United States | $166,011 |
| 4 | Sean Legendre | United States | $125,371 |
| 5 | Dov Markowich | Canada | $95,363 |
| 6 | Maxime Duhamel | Canada | $73,064 |
| 7 | Abhinav Iyer | India | $56,388 |
| 8 | Sebastien Clot | France | $43,839 |
| 9 | Liran Betito | Israel | $34,336 |
Notable faces were in the field today and many ran deep, Dean Hutchison (15th), Ryan Phan (53rd), Melanie Weisner (101st )and Adam Levy (108th).
The unofficial final table table started with Italian Fabrizio Petroni hero calling versus Terence Reid and being wrong.
The official final table started with Liran Betito busting as the short stack against Wazwaz, running into aces.
Next was Sebastien Clot, the French player getting unfortunate to lose his all-in with his ace-king against Maxime Duhamel's queen-jack.
Bracelet winner Abhinav Iyer fell short of winning his second bracelet, after taking down the 2019 ''The Closer'' event for over $500,000. The Indian player took his exit with class, when he had to get his ace-six in against five-four and it couldn't hold.
Duhamel had one of the bigger rails of the final table and busted when he ran his pocket fours into Sean Legendre's tens. Dov Markowich, who went from chip leader to last in chips, then back up to the top, before ultimately getting short again, busted in fifth place. His king-queen couldn't get there against the ace-seven of Wazwaz.
Heads-up was thick and fast as players were so short stacked, like much of the final table. Originally, Robert Crow had the chip lead. He was hoping to lock up the event as it was his first tournament in five or six years and had only played smaller events in the past. He played this purely to tick it off his bucket list. He was all in for the win with king-six but couldn't get there against Wazwaz's pocket queens. The stacks flipped at that point, and momentum went the way of Wazwaz.
The final hand of the day came when Crow shoved all-in on the river with king-high, and Wazwaz sniffed out his bluff to capture his first bracelet. Still, the Seattle Seahawks fan Crow still has quite the story to go home with, not to mention $221,399.
Speaking to Wazwaz afterward, he shared his story, how it felt and what it was like having his buddies rail him all night. ''It was my third final table, but first since a long time. Back then, I wasn't as experienced, I didn't play them right when I got deep. But I've come a long way, and my dream was to come out here and win a bracelet''.
Wazwaz told PokerNews, ''I ran so pure, so pure, like my whole life of playing tournaments, this was the purest tournament I've ever ran in my entire life''.
A humble but elated Wazwaz also had a lot of good to say about his fellow final tablists, ''They were all great players, it was a very tough match, very tough. I'm just so proud of myself for winning. My wife will be happy, and I really appreciate my rail being here. My rail was amazing''.
Wazwaz, the Minnesotan native, goes back to his wife and five children with the bracelet. The entrepreneur says poker is just his side hobby and he's been playing a long, long time. When asked about his plans to play more events he told PokerNews ''I was going to come and go for two final tables, but now I'm coming back for two bracelets!''. Fighting talk from Wazwaz, who will come back to Vegas once he's seen his family to search for more glory and gold in the 2022 World Series of Poker.
That concludes the coverage of Event #25, but be sure to stay with at PokerNews for updates from all other events tomorrow and throughout the series live from Bally's and Paris Las Vegas.