At the tender age of 21, Spanish professional poker player Adrian Mateos already boasts an Estrellas Poker Tour Main Event, an EPT Grand Final Main Event, and a WSOP Europe Main Event titles. It was only hours ago when the youngster added another trophy to his astounding collection. Mateos topped the field of the 2016 WSOP $1,500 Summer Solstice No-Limit Hold’em, collecting his second WSOP gold bracelet and the amount of $409,171 in first-place prize.
This has been Mateos’ first trip to Las Vegas. The player has long wanted to take part in the WSOP but it was only this year that he has become eligible to do so as it is required for each WSOP participant to be aged 21 or over. However, he has entered WSOP Europe events over the years and has even won the 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event. Including last night’s victory, Mateos’ WSOP-related winnings now amount to more than $1.8 million.
Shortly after his triumph, the young Spaniard told interviewers that he is really happy to finally win a gold bracelet in Las Vegas. The player also pointed out that he always plays to win and if this does not happen, he tries to learn from his mistakes and to improve his performance.
The $1,500 Summer Solstice event has been included in the WSOP schedule for the very first time this year. The tournament was played over five days, attracting a massive field of 1,840 entries. As a result, a prize pool of $2,484,000 was generated. The top 276 places got paid out, with min-cash totaling $2,253.
The tournament’s final day started with Mateos and his heads-up opponent Koray Aldemir from Austria returning to determine the eventual champion. Play kicked off with Aldemir holding a slight chip lead over his last remaining opponent.
It took Mateos a total of 57 hands to send Aldemir to the rail and emerge as the event’s winner. On the very last hand for the evening and the tournament, Aldemir moved all with [Ah][2s] and Mateos called with [4c][4h]. The board ran out [10c][9s][3d][5c][5h], giving the Spanish player a second pair and a second gold bracelet. Aldemir collected $252,805 for finishing 2nd.
Italian Alessandro Borsa took 3rd place for $182,835. Ralph Wong from West Chester, Pennsylvania finished 4th, good for $133,588. Jon Turner from Henderson, Nevada collected $98,617 for taking 5th place. Jackson White from Houston, Texas was paid $73,563 for his sixth-place finish.
Ronald McGinnity from Kingston, Massachusetts finished 7th for $55,455. Canadian Stephen Ladowsky took 8th place for a payout of $42,252. David Tovar from the UK was the player to round out the official final table, collecting $32,540 of the prize pool.
