Samuel Mullur Wins WSOP Paradise $25K GGMillion$ for $2,726,300

Samuel Mullur has won his first WSOP bracelet after winning Event #3: $25,000 GGMillion$ High Rollers Championship at WSOP Paradise. Mullur defeated American Frank Brannan heads-up to win the $2,726,300 first-place prize and the WSOP gold bracelet.

Entering WSOP Paradise, the Austrian had just over $100,000 in live tournament earnings, with his biggest result being a 45th-place finish in the 2022 Mediterranean Poker Party Kyrenia Main Event for $20,000. With a WSOP bracelet to his name, Mullur now soars up the Austrian All-Time Money List to fourth overall, trailing only Matthias Eibinger, Thomas Muehloecker, and Daniel Rezaei, according to The Hendon Mob.

The inaugural WSOP Paradise kicked off on December 3 from Atlantis Paradise Island with 15 gold bracelet events and more than $50,000,000 in prize pool guarantees. The third event on the schedule would include the second-largest prize pool guarantee of $10,000,000, two opening flights, and GGPoker's newest OnLive qualification. The skepticism of WSOP Paradise would be put to rest when the 533-entrant field smashed the guarantee and set a prize pool of $13,058,500 that paid the final 80 players who returned for Day 2. 

PGT regulars Jonathan Jaffe, Michael Duek, Aram Oganyan, Masashi Oya, Koray Aldemir, Orpen Kisacikoglu, Ren Lin, Justin Bonomo, Nacho Barbero, Jason Mercier, Darren Elias, Stephen Song, Matthew Wantman, Alex Livingston, Daniel Negreanu, Seth Davies, Jason Koon, and Erik Seidel all finished in the money before the final table was reached. Daniel Smiljkovic held the chip lead over the final nine players, and when Renat Bohdanov was eliminated in ninth place, play would conclude for Day 2 with Smiljkovic still on top.

Canadian Matthew Stumpf would exit in eighth place when his dominated ace failed to improve against Smiljkovic before four-time WSOP bracelet winner Adrian Mateos exited in seventh when he lost a race with pocket fours against the ace-jack suited of Smiljkovic. The German was closing in on having half the chips in play six-handed before Klemens Roiter struck a two-outer to stay alive. Mullur doubled through Brannan, and then Smiljkovic to take the chip lead, and when he doubled through Roiter, he sat with 55% of the chips in play.

Roiter doubled three times before his luck ran out with king-jack against Mullur's queen-nine. Roiter flopped two pair, but Mullur turned a straight to eliminate Roiter in sixth. Arunas Sapitavicius then fell to Mullur when his ace-deuce couldn't improve against Mullur's pocket tens as just four players remained. WSOP 2020 champion Damian Salas exited in fourth place when his king-queen lost to the ace-king of Brannan, while Smiljkovic's quest for a second WSOP bracelet ended in third place when his king-nine couldn't improve against the ace-four of Brannan.

It would be Austria against America for the WSOP bracelet, and Mullur held nearly a two-to-one chip advantage over Brannan. Although Mullur extended his lead in the early goings, Brannan doubled and took the lead when he turned a two-outer after all the chips were in the middle preflop. The chips stacks were now virtually even, but not for long, as Brannan ran a bluff against the flopped top pair of Mullur who called him down. Brannan took the lead one more time when he turned a flush, but Mullur would double shortly after when his pocket kings held up against the top pair of Brannan with one card to come. The final blow would see Brannan shove all-in for 14 big blind with queen-ten-suited but run into the pocket kings of Mullur. Mullur flopped a full house to render Brannan drawing dead to runner-runner Royal Flush, and when the final two cards bricked out, Mullur was crowned a WSOP bracelet winner and received $2,726,300 in prize money and his first WSOP bracelet.

2023 WSOP Paradise Event #3: $25,000 GGMillion$ High Rollers Championship Final Table Results

Daniel Smiljkovic and Adrian Mateos Enter Top 40 of PGT Leaderboard

Following Mullur's victory and first WSOP bracelet win, he moves to 50th on the PGT leaderboard with 850 PGT points. Mullur is now just 151 PGT points shy of sitting inside the Top 40, which would earn him a seat in the PGT Championship $1,000,000 Freeroll on January 9-10, 2024.

Two of the biggest benefactors from their deep run in Event #3 were Daniel Smiljkovic and Adrian Mateos. Smiljkovic now climbs to 28th on the PGT leaderboard with 1,143 PGT points from his three PGT cashes this season. Mateos now sits in 29th place on the PGT leaderboard with 1,139 PGT points on the back of his one win and ten cashes this season. 

Other players that cashed in Event #3 and now creep closer to the Top 40 include Alex Livingston (43rd with 930 PGT points), Justin Bonomo (54th with 805 PGT points), Artur Martirosyan (55th with 778 PGT points), Erik Seidel (62nd with 724 PGT points), Orpen Kisacikoglu (69th with 698 PGT points), Andjelko Andrejevic (74th with 642 PGT points), Matthew Wantman (79th with 623 PGT points), Justin Zaki, Santhosh Suvarna, and Daniel Dvoress (tied in 81st with 591 PGT points).

To view the PGT leaderboard, check out pgt.com/leaderboard.

11 Events Remaining in PGT Season

For complete PGT schedule information, check out pgt.com/schedule.

*Samuel Mullur winner picture courtesy of WSOP.com

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