Bradley 'DrStrange7' Ruben took home a six-figure payday and a WSOP bracelet Monday, coming out on top in Event #62 - $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha in the 2020 GGPoker WSOP Online series.
The win marks the first career WSOP bracelet for Ruben, who took home a $220,160 payday for the win. Ruben topped a field of 990 total entries in the one-day event. The finish came down to the American Ruben and Israel's Dorel 'DorelEl" Eldabach, who finished second and cashed for $168,478.
The heads-up duel between Ruben and Eldabach lasted just six hands. Ruben went into heads-up play with more than a two-to-one chip lead, and finished the job just minutes later for his first career WSOP bracelet win.
Other top finishes included Austria's Jens 'Tankanza' Lakemeier (3rd - $122,264), Naman 'pokermafiaa' Madan of India (4th - $88,727), and Blaz 'Sc4rm4k3r' Zerjav from Slovenia (5th - $64,389). Notable names finishing in the cash included Canada's Patrick 'NeatDad1971' Serda (7th - $33,910), and former WSOP bracelet winner Craig 'Goblue' Varnell from the United States (18th - $6,982).
The $1,500 buy-in event yielded a prize pool of more than $1.4 million.
PLO takes the stage in the GGPoker WSOP Online series
Event #62 marked the seventh Pot-Limit Omaha event from the GGPoker side of the 2020 WSOP Online. The one-day event brought out some of poker's biggest names, including GGPoker Ambassadors Daniel Negreanu, Fedor Holz, and Felipe Ramos.
Other top players showing up for the PLO event included eight-time bracelet winner Erik Seidel, 2019 Global Poker Index Player of the Year Alex Foxen, Issac Haxton, Brandon Adams, and Yuri Dzivielevski. None of those major players finished in the money, however, in a tournament that featured 134 players paid out of the 990 entries.
All players that did finish in the money earned at least a min-cash of $3,476. All of the players that made it through to the eight-handed final table earned at least five-figure paydays.
Final Table Roundup
Serda went into final table action with the chip lead, but had a trail of players closely contending as the tournament was still up for grabs at that point. Ruben came into the final table in sixth place on the chip count leaderboard.
Tal 'bonboni555' Peretz (8th - $24,608) was the first to go among the final table contenders, followed by Serda (7th - $33,910), who hit the rail a half-hour later at the hands of Eldabach.
Ruben found himself at the bottom of the chip stack counts at that point, looking up at a remaining field that saw Kelopuro holding the chip lead with 45 big blinds. Ruben's stack stood at just over 15 big blinds at the time.
From there, however, Ruben blazed a trail to the bracelet win. Down to his last 11 big blinds at one point, Ruben began to turn things around after doubling up through Kelopuro, sending Kelopuro's fortunes downward.
Kelopuro (6th -$46,727) hit the rail minutes later, and Ruben sat atop the chip counts with five players remaining. Ruben increased the stack to more than 50 big blinds after knocking out Zerjav, who headed to the exit in fifth place.
It took just 20 minutes for the final four players to whittle down to Ruben's eventual win. Each of the final four eliminations in the tournament were administered by Ruben.
The final hand saw Eldabach and Ruben get all of the chips in on both sides with the flop showing J❤️4♣8❤️. Eldabach's K♣K♠5♠2♣ was ahead of Ruben's A❤️6❤️6♠9♠ at the time, and stayed there through the 7♦️ turn.
The river Q❤️ brought in the flush for Ruben, however, and sealed the bracelet victory.
