Although the 2016 WSOP, played at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino from May 31 to July 18, was the poker festival to attract the greatest attention for over a month, there were a number of other noteworthy poker events to have taken place in Las Vegas. The Bellagio Cup XII was indisputably among the most exciting ones.
As the name suggest, Bellagio played host to the event, which featured several tournaments, with the $10,400 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event being the highlight one. It attracted a field of 268 entries, but it was Englishman Kuljinder Sidhu who emerged victorious for a top prize of $599,440 and the tournament trophy.
The event featured an overall prize pool of $2,599,600. The top 27 finishers received a share of the money, with lowest payouts worth $23,396. Given its high buy-in fee and other important factors, the Bellagio Cup Main Event has always attracted the attention of some of the world’s most popular poker players. Its latest edition was not an exclusion to this as poker pros Byron Kaverman, Connor Drinan, Adrian Mateos Diaz, Igor Kurganov, and Justin Bonomo were only few of the players that not only entered the tournament but made it to the money.
As for the champion himself, he came out on top of quite a tough final table comprised of players like Connor Drinan, David Peters, and Pratyush Buddiga. Eventually, Sidhu faced Nick Schulman heads-up. The two players agreed to split the remaining pot and to play for the trophy. Schulman took home $557,388 for his runner-up finish.
Including his latest triumph, Sidhu now has $2,266,868 in live tournament earnings. Last year, the player won the Master of Classics Poker 2015 €10,250 High Roller Re-Entry event for €161,172. However, his best tournament performance in terms of money won was his runner-up finish in the EPT Season 12 Barcelona €10,300 High Roller 8-Max where he collected a payout of €640,000.
Chance Cornuth finished 3rd in the Bellagio Cup XII Main Event to take home the amount of $285,956. Connor Drinan took 4th place for $198,869. Pratyush Buddiga received $148,177 for finishing 5th. Adam Geyer scooped $114,382 for taking 6th place in the tournament.
David Peters finished 7th, good for $88,386. Female poker pro Liv Boeree took 8th place for a payout of $64,990. Rounding out the official final table, Dani Stern took home $46,793.
