Pennsylvania-based poker pro Brian Hastings won the $1,500 Ten-Game Mix to become the first double-winner of this year’s edition of the WSOP. Apart from the amount of $133,403, the player also collected his third career WSOP bracelet only ten days after he captured his second one.
Event #39 on the 2015 WSOP schedule attracted 380 entries who created a prize pool of $513,000. Of all the players who entered the event, only the top 42 finishers got their share of the prize pool, with the payouts starting from $2,539.
The Ten-Game Mix (Six-Handed) event was introduced at the 2011 WSOP. Since then, the format has gained considerable popularity. This year, the event attracted prominent poker pros such as Phil Hellmuth and Daniel Negreanu. Both players made it to the money, but could not stand a chance against Hastings, who eventually captured the title.
Generally speaking, the Ten-Game Mix rotates the following poker variations – Seven-Card Stud, Pot-Limit Omaha, No-Limit Hold’em, Razz, Badugi, Omaha High-Low Split, Limit Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single Draw, Limit Hold’em, Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split.
The seven-handed final table of this year’s $1,500 Ten-Game Mix featured both poker veterans and less known poker players. Aside from Hastings, there were two more former bracelet winners at the table – Todd Brunson, who won his first and only WSOP title in 2005, and Owais Ahmed, who captured his piece of WSOP jewelry in 2011.
Eventually, Hastings faced Ukrainian-born player Rostislav Tsodikov for one final heads-up duel. Early in the match, the latter held four time more chips than his opponent. The heads-up play lasted almost three hours, with the chips swinging from one player to the other.
On what turned out to be the last hand, the players were playing Limit Hold’em. Hastings raised to 120,000 and Tsodikov three-bet to 180,000. Hastings bet 240,000 and his opponent called all-in.
Tsodikov showed [Ad][5c] against Hastings’ [Kd][6s]. The board ran out [2c][Ks][Js][7h][4s] and the name of the champion became clear. Tsodikov took home the amount of $82,398 for his runner-up finish. This was his 8th WSOP cash.
Minutes after his victory, Hastings told interviewers that he prides himself on being good at all those games. The player also said that he will enter the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, which is scheduled to start later today.
And here are the rest of the players who took part in the seven-handed final table play:
Former bracelet winner Todd Brunson from Las Vegas, Nevada took 3rd place to scoop his 44th WSOP cash of $52,977. Russian Alexey Makarov finished 4th to capture the amount of $35,130.
Tim Reusch from Hamburg, Germany received $23,982 for finishing 5th in the event. Canadian Mike Watson took 6th place for $16,846, his 36th career WSOP cash. Rounding up the final table, Owais Ahmed from Anaheim, California finished 7th to be paid the amount of $12,163. The player won his first and only WSOP bracelet back in 2011 for topping the field of a Mixed format.
