Ryan Leng was the chip leader into the additional Day 4 of the 2018 WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty and despite his ups and downs throughout the day, the player eventually claimed his first gold bracelet, $272,765 in prize money, and $9,000 worth of bounties.
The tournament drew 1,982 entries who created a prize pool of $2,675,700. Players were also guaranteed a $500 bounty for each fellow competitor they eliminated. Day 1 of the event was completed with 298 players still in contention. That field was reduced to just 29 by the end of Day 2. Ranno Sootla bagged the chip lead that day. Leng and Sootla were hot on each other’s heels for the rest of the tournament, eventually playing a lengthy and action-packed heads-up.
Day 3 was supposed to be the final one within the event. However, late into the day, there were still four players battling for the title. They returned at the host casino, Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino, for an additional fourth day to play down to a champion.
Leng was leading the final pack of four at the time. The player had quite a bumpy ride on Day 3, emerging as the chip leader, then falling to a short stack, then heading up to the top of the chip counts chart again. It was not much different for the eventual champion on Day 4.
Final Day Highlights
Two of the final four Day 4 survivors – Christian Nolte and Jay Farber – hit the rail relatively shortly after the start of the day. Nolte cashed $89,151 from the tournament, while Farber collected $121,932 to leave it to Leng and Sootla to square off for the title.
The match began with Leng holding a comfortable 2-1 chip lead over his final opponent. However, both players were deep in play, which promised for and delivered a lengthy battle. The two opponents switched the chip lead on several occasions, just as they did on Day 3 of the tournament.
Heads-up lasted more than 50 action-packed hands, during which Leng and Sootla never stopped to challenge each other into dangerous situations. Leng had a slight chip advantage over his final opponent when what turned out to be the final hand in play was dealt at the table.
It saw Sootla raise to 400,000 pre-flop and Leng call. The flop came [9d][8c][6c]. Leng bet 350,000 and Sootla raised to 1.175 million. Leng re-raised to 2.175 million to see his opponent move all in. The eventual winner snap-called to table [10c][7h] to Sootla’s [9s][9c]. The [10h] arrived on the turn and a blank [4d] on the river cemented Leng’s victory. Sootla was thus eliminated in second place, good for $168,329.
Leng’s cash of $272,765 from last night was his career’s largest one. And his brand new gold bracelet was the first one he has ever scooped from the popular poker series. Including last night’s payout, the player’s WSOP winnings now exceed $1 million. The player has cashed in 14 WSOP events and 19 WSOP Circuit events over the course of his career. He also sports a gold ring from the WSOP Circuit, which he won last fall by taking down a $365 No-Limit Hold’em event at Horseshoe Southern Indiana.
