Filippos Stavrakis was one of 986 entries to show up for the 2018 WSOP $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, and was eventually the final man standing. The Baltimore, Maryland resident collected his first gold piece from the world’s longest running tournament poker series and a first-place prize of $169,842.
Stavrakis was joined by his wife to pose together for his victory photograph. The brand new WSOP champion said after his triumph that he felt as if there was one more person rooting for him while at the poker table – his late brother. Stavrakis dedicated his victory to his sibling, saying that he had always planned to do this if he had been fortunate enough to capture the gold bracelet.
Stavrakis entered the third and final day of the $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha event as the chip leader among 14 survivors. That start-of-the-day field was reduced to a final table relatively quickly. It then took a little while before the hopefuls vying for the title were whittled down to just four. Despite his initial lead at the beginning of Day 3, Stavrakis had quite some hardships during four-handed play. The player even dropped to a short stack at some point.
However, after nearly three hours of four-handed play, it was eventually Clinton Monfort who busted in fourth place. That key elimination sped up action at the poker table. Brazil’s Felipe Ramos was the next to go. His elimination thus set the final stage of the game – the heads-up duel between Stavrakis and Jordan Siegel.
Two-Handed Play
The match began with Stavrakis holding nearly two times more chips than his final opponent. The two players treaded carefully during the first hands of heads-up. Stavrakis eventually began putting pressure on Siegel to extend his advantage.
The last hand in play did not arrive much later. Stravrakis raised to 160,000 pre-flop and Siegel called to see the [4d][7s][Kd] flop arrive. Siegel bet 320,000. Stavrakis raised to put Siegel in an all-in situation. Siegel called, tabling [Ac][8d][6d][2d] to his opponent’s [Ad][7d][7c][4s]. The [Qh] ran out on the turn and the [10h] arrived on the river to secure Stavrakis with the title.
Siegel thus hit the rail in second place to collect $104,924 for running that deep into the tournament. As for Stavrakis, scooped the largest cash of his career totaling $169,842.
The $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha was the 26th gold bracelet event on the schedule of this year’s WSOP. The 2018 edition of the series features a record number of gold bracelet tournaments, with a total of 78 gold pieces up for grabs. The WSOP kicked off on May 30 at its usual host, Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and is set to run through July 17.
The $10,000 Main Event, usually the most highly anticipated tournament on the schedule, will this year take place from July 2 through July 14 with thousands of players expected to enter it for a chance to become the 2018 World Champion.
