Remko on the Rail – Maiden Winners Dominate WSOP

As the World Series of Poker approaches its fiftieth year of existence, well more than 1,000 gold bracelets have been awarded in events varying from the $1,000 Big One for One Drop all the way down to the $565 Casino Employee’s Event. There’s a story behind each and every one of those wins, and no matter big or small, those stories hold a special place in the hearts and minds of those who won.

Today, in Remko on the Rail, we focus on some of those new stories as the 2018 WSOP has seen a plethora of maiden winners in recent events. Get caught up with all the latest action right now, as I take you through the ever-growing list of names that will forever be referred to as “bracelet winner.”

Small Buy-ins, Big Money

Starting with the best return on investment in an open event, Robert Peacock took down the $1,000 Double Stack, leaving no less than 5,700 entries behind him. Supported by a loud rail of friends and family, Peacock kept his head cool in the closing stages of the final table, bagging up a big overnight lead heading into the unscheduled fifth day of play. On that final day, Peacock sent Joshua Turner and Nicholas Salimbene to the rail before getting mobbed by his friends.

Continuing the trend of enormous ROIs, Timur Margolin took down the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em event, defeating a field of 1,248 players. The final table of this event was stacked and the final four players returned for live streaming coverage with hole cards on the Poker Central Twitch channel. Relive the battle between Chris ‘Jesus’ Ferguson, Ismael Bojang and Michael Marder down below in the embedded player.

Winning this event for $500,724 now accounts for a third of Margolin’s total career earnings, outlasting German mixed game specialist Ismael Bojang who took home $313,444. This is now also the biggest score of Bojang’s career.

The Bonyadi Family Adds a Bracelet

Three-time bracelet winner Farzad Bonyadi has two deep runs so far this summer, finishing fourth and eight in 2-7 Triple Draw events, but it was his mother Farhintaj who brought another bracelet to the family in the $1,000 Super Seniors event! Bonyadi showed her son how it’s done, outlasting 2,191 entries to claim the $311,451 first-place prize.

Bracelet winners Steve Zolotow, Michael Moore, Konstantin Puchkov, Philip Tom and Gary Benson also finished in the money in this event.

Two More Hold’em Heroes

Spain added a bracelet in the $1,000 Big Blind Antes event with just 30-minute levels, as Mario Prats Garcia outlasted a field of 1,712 players. This fast and furious event took fewer than seven hours on Day 2, as Garcia left players such as Martin Staszko and DJ MacKinnon behind him at the final table. The payouts for this event are as follows.

Sidetracking briefly for an update on the online event, Matthew ‘mendey’ Mendez took down the first ever online Pot Limit Omaha bracelet event. This $565 buy-in tournament had 1,223 total entries and created a prize pool of $635,960. The final table included plenty of big names as the payouts are as follows.

The final No Limit Hold’em event from this recap is the $1,500 Shootout, that drew 908 total players. The final table was live-streamed on Twitch, and you can rewatch the battle between the final six players here.

Ultimately it was Preston Lee who won his first bracelet, beating Corey Dodd heads-up. Dylan Linde continued his strong showing at this year’s WSOP with a fourth-place finish.

Limited Betting, Unlimited Smiles

Moving away from the Cadillac of poker, there are six more bracelets to dive into on this edition of Remko on the Rail, starting with Yuegi Zhu’s first win. Zhu’s been a long-time grinder of WSOP events, collecting no less than 70 cashes before getting his first win. Zhu took down the $1,500 Mixed Omaha event, defeating a final table that included bracelet winners Carol Fuchs, Ryan Hughes and defending champion Nathan Gamble.

Staying with Omaha, David Brookshire took down the $2,500 Mixed Omaha/Stud Hi-Lo Eight-or-Better event for $214,291. This split-pot extravaganza drew 402 players and the final table included Colombia’s Daniel Ospina, winner of the first bracelet for his home country earlier this summer.

The limited version of the $1,500 Hold’em event remained consistent and drew 596 total players with Robert Nehorayan grabbing the win for $173,568. Nehorayan defeated long-time grinder Kevin Song who was going for his second bracelet after winning the $2,000 Limit Hold’em tournament all the way back in 1997. Back then Song took home $397,120 for that win, battling through a final table that included Dan Heimiller, Erik Seidel, Huck Seed and Berry Johnston. Here are the payouts for this year’s event.

Just last night, Jay Kwon denied Polish poker phenom Dzmitry Urbanovich his first bracelet by taking home his own first. Kwon outlasted a total of 389 players in the $1,500 Razz event that also saw big names such as Adam Owen and Kevin Iacofano make the final table. This was Kwon’s third cash in a Razz event, and his fourth total at the WSOP, cementing his reputation as a Razz specialist.

And last but not least, we conclude this long summary of maiden winners at the World Series of Poker with Scott Bohlman. While it too Zhu 70 cashes to get his first win, Bohlman was getting up there as well with his 51st cash turning into his first gold. Bohlman took down the $2,500 Mixed Big Bet event for $122,138 after more than 15 years on the felt.

Stay tuned for more exciting poker action right here on Poker Central, follow us on Twitch for more final table action, and subscribe to PokerGO to not miss a minute of the wall-to-wall coverage of the WSOP Main Event.