After an incredible night of action at the Penn and Teller Theatre in the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, a mammoth heads-up battle has resulted in a German being crowned World Champion of poker for the first time in history in the form of 22-year-old Pius Heinz.
The final three sat down Tuesday evening in Vegas and knew that by the night’s end, one of them would be world champion. Pius Heinz held the chip lead followed by Ben Lamb and Czech pro Martin Staszko.
The night began as it meant to go on with incredible drama from the very first hand. No settling in period was to be had as Staszko re-raised Ben Lamb’s open. The crowd gasped as Lamb put Staszko to the test with a four-bet shove that Staszko contemplated and called.
An all-in and a call on the very first hand. The players flipped over their cards, Lamb revealing KhJd sheepishly and being relieved to see he was flipping Staszko’s pocket sevens. Lamb had the luck on Sunday but the board missed him and he was crippled down to under 13 million in chips, whilst Staszko doubled to over 85 million. Just a few hands later Lamb shoved his remaining stack in and ran in Staszko’s pocket Jacks, and three became two in a matter of minutes.
Lamb went home with the tidy sum of $4,021,138. His shove seemed almost reckless but in his post match interview with Kara Scott he said he was pleased with his play and his World Series overall. With such a quick start, those watching live on tv could have been forgiven for thinking this would be over quickly. But that was far from the case as Staszko and Heinz battled on for over six hours in the longest heads-up battle at a WSOP Main Event final table in recent memory.
Keep reading PokerBlog for all the details of their heads-up battle.
John
- hailing from Watford, UK John became hooked on the game of poker ever since his uncle taught him the rules of 7-card stud during a home game at the young age of 15. He caught the online bug three short years later after turning 18 and began regularly playing Texas Hold'em SNGs.
