Despite a terrific WSOP career with 30 in-the-money finishes in the Series, a gold bracelet has somehow eluded UK poker pro Chris Moorman over the years until last night. The player topped the field of the 2017 WSOP $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed after a strenuous four-hour-long heads-up battle against Brazil’s Bernardo Dias to collect a gold bracelet and boost his bankroll with the first-place payout of $498,682.
The tournament attracted a field of 959 hopefuls who generated a prize pool of more than $2.5 million. They had three days to determine the winner. Day 3 of the event began with 21 survivors, with Moorman holding one of the top stacks. What had left of the original field was reduced to the six-handed final table relatively quickly.
The eventual champion maintained a good position throughout the day, but it was during the final table that he began putting actual pressure on his opponents. At the time there were only five players left, Moorman had emerged as the chip leader with huge advantage over the rest.
It took precisely 38 hands of play for the final table to be reduced to just two players – Moorman and Dias. The two-handed match began with the Englishman holding two times more chips than his final opponent. Despite the large chip deficit, Dias was not ready to give up on the opportunity to grab the title and his first gold bracelet.
It was a tough heads-up match that lasted for almost one hundred hands. During the four-hour battle, Dias managed to double up just once, but could not hold on the acquired chips for long. What is more, he never managed to come even close to his much more experienced opponent.
Dias decided his fate on Hand #132, when he shoved pre-flop with [Kc][10s] against his opponent’s [Ad][Kh]. The dealer placed [5d][8c][8s][Qs][9c] on the board to secure Moorman with the title and the gold. The player reveled with his rail, celebrating his triumph. As for Dias, he had to settle for the $308,166 payout.
Moorman may be known to many for his online poker activity. A quick look at the player’s HendonMob profile shows that he has won more than $14 million on the virtual felt over the past several years. However, he has also been quite prolific on the live poker scene. Including last night’s first-place prize, the player now has $5,126,882 in live tournament winnings.
When asked about how he felt last night, Moorman told WSOP interviewers that it all felt so real to win a live tournament and to be able to celebrate with friends. Winning online tournaments sometimes in the middle of the night, the player was not able to share his joy with anyone else.
Of his plans for the rest of the Series, Moorman said that he hoped he would make more final tables and that more UK players would scoop bracelets.
