After three days of play, WSOP $10,000 Heads Up No-Limit Hold’em Championship Event has concluded. In the end, it was Alan Percal who topped up a field of 153 entrants and won his first WSOP gold bracelet as well as the first place prize of $320,574. The accumulated prizepool totaled $1,188,200 and the remaining amount was distributed among the other players who reached the money bubble.
In order to get the coveted prize, Percal had to defeat tough opponents such as Jeff Gross, Brian Rast and Olivier Busquet. Apart from getting his first bracelet, this was also the first WSOP cash in his career.
After the win, Percal said he has been dreaming of scooping a bracelet ever since he started playing poker professionally. When his friends asked him whether he was going to participate in this year’s WSOP he confirmed and said it could not get worse than his previous participation in WSOP Circuit in 2011-2012 when he finished 130th.
Percal has been playing poker online for quite some time and he played predominantly heads-up and six-max cash games. In order to make his way to capturing the gold bracelet, Percal had to defeat John Smith. The latter was a veteran at the Vietnam War and he has been playing poker for 50 years. He pocketed the consolation prize of $198,192 for his runner-up finish. This was the second WSOP cash in his career.
Alex Luneau had a chance to become the first Frenchman to win a WSOP gold bracelet at this year’s tournament. Unfortunately, this idea was not materialized as Luneau lost to John Smith and received a payout of $123,929. This was his 7th WSOP cash.
The fourth place was taken by Olivier Busquet. In point of fact, he was considered the favourite to win the event and these expectations rose when the names of the final table players became clear. However, Busquet lost to Alan Percal and received $123,929 of the accumulated prize pool.
The New Jersey resident Matthew Diehl collected $56,202 for his 5th place. This was his second cash in a WSOP event.
The sixth place was taken by Nick Yunis, who has never made it to the final table before. He added $56,202 to his bankroll. The same prize received the Californian Benjamin Geisman and the Texan Orlando Romero who finished 7th and 8th, respectively.
Some of the other notable players were Sam Stein, Antonio Esfandiari, Adrian Mateos, Sam Soverel, Jared Jaffee.
