Yet another champion has been crowned at the ongoing 2018 WSOP and it is Israel’s Timur Margolin. The 34-year old pro emerged victorious after defeating Ismael Bojang heads up in Event #43: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em to win his maiden gold bracelet and the top prize of $507,274.
The WSOP tournament drew a total of 1,248 entries and generated a prize pool of $2,808,000. The final six players returned for an extra day to determine the champion on the Twitch live stream table in the Brasilia room. After several hours of the fierce battles, it was Margolin who came out on top in front of an enthusiastic rail from Israel. Germany’s Bojang yet again missed out on his maiden gold bracelet after plenty of close calls and had to settle for second place prize of $313,444.
Margolin had to face a tough competition at the final table that included Ismael Bojang, six-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Ferguson, 2016 WSOP Circuit Chicago main event winner and Goan Nut’s wild-card player Dylan Linde and 2016 WSOP PLO event winner Ryan Laplante.
During the 4-handed play, Margolin got a huge double-up when his Q-10 won against Ferguson’s A-J. Ferguson became the shortest stack after that hand, and very soon exited in fourth place for an impressive $161,371in prizemoney after when his nut flush draw failed to improve against Margolin’s top pair. Moving into three-handed play, Margolin took a huge lead and he further extended that lead by knocking out the well-known Michael Marder in third place.
Margolin began the heads-up battle with a commanding lead over Ismael Bojang, who eventually ended up finishing runner-up for his career’s largest cash of $313,444 after his A-2 lost to Margolin’s K-Q on the board reading Ks 5s 4s Qh8d. Margolin got top two pairs to take down the pot.
India’s ace player Paawan Bansal, who made it to Day 3 in this event with 206,000 in chips and was placed 30th among the remaining 34 players, finished 30th for a cool $12,345. It was the third time that Bansal cashed at 2018 WSOP. Before this, he cashed in Event #7: COLOSSUS – $565 No-Limit Hold’em (13th for $35,087 ) and Event #34: $1,000 DOUBLE STACK NLH (74th for $6,803).
Another Indian challenger who ran deep and cashed in this event was Aditya ‘Bitti’ Agarwal from Kolkata. He picked up his maiden WSOP score finishing in 81st place for a cool $5,653.
Final Table Payouts
| Position | Player | Prize |
| 1 | Timur Margolin | $507,274 |
| 2 | Ismael Bojang | $313,444 |
| 3 | Michael Marder | $223,564 |
| 4 | Chris Ferguson | $161,371 |
| 5 | Dylan Linde | $117,894 |
| 6 | Ryan Laplante | $87,189 |
| 7 | Jeff Hakim | $65,284 |
| 8 | Andre Haneberg | $49,498 |
| 9 | Josh Bergman | $38,009 |
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