The 2016 WSOP $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em, or one of the most exciting events on the Series’ schedule, has been concluded mere hours ago. Jason DeWitt from San Diego, California has become a million dollars richer after topping the tournament’s huge field. To be more precise, the player collected a first-place prize of $1,065,403 as well as his second gold bracelet.
DeWitt won his first WSOP-related gold piece in 2010, when he emerged victorious in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. Back then, his share of the prize pool amounted to $818,959. Including the player’s triumph from last night, his WSOP winnings now amount to more than $2.5 million.
When asked about what he would do with his prize from the Millionaire Maker tournament, DeWitt said that nothing has changed for him and that his lifestyle would remain the same, despite adding more than a million dollars to his bankroll.
The Millionaire Maker was a five-day event and it could be said that its champion dominated the final day of play. DeWitt was involved in most of the key hands throughout the day and won a great number of those played during the official nine-handed final table.
Overall, this year’s edition of the tournament drew a total of 7,190 entries. The massive field generated a prize pool of $9,706,500. As many as 1,079 players got lucky to be paid a portion of the money, with lowest payouts starting from $2,250.
It could be said that the tournament’s payout structure was a bit odd as DeWitt’s runner-up collected $1 million or just $65,403 less than the winner. The third-place finisher scooped half a million.
Going back to the tournament’s final day, it was already mentioned that DeWitt was the player to dominate the action, scooping all the major pots and eventually winning the whole event. Garret Greer, who too resides in California, was DeWitt’s heads-up opponent. The player posed a serious challenge to the eventual winner. Yet, he could not take the chip lead at the most important moments during two-handed play.
Hand #107 was the last one for the day, the one that secured DeWitt with the victory. The eventual winner moved all in from the button and Greer called. DeWitt tabled [Ks][8c] against his opponent’s [Qs][7h]. The board ran out [10d][6h][2c][3h][5d] and DeWitt’s king-high secured him with the pot, the gold bracelet and the first-place prize.
Finishing runner-up, Greer took home the amount of $1 million. Lisa Meredith, kindergarten teacher from Vancouver, Washington, took the third-place prize of $500,000. Francis Rusnak from Las Vegas, Nevada collected $366,787 for taking 4th place in the event. Luke Anthony from the UK finished 5th for $276,632.
Arkadiy Tsinis from Miami, Florida scooped the amount of $210,112 of the prize pool for taking 6th place. Russian Mikhail Semin finished 7th for $160,725. Alessio Dicesare from Italy collected a payout of $123,828 for his 8th place. Stanley Lee from West Hartford, Connecticut finished 9th for $96,091.
