The $600 PLO Deep Stack event of the WSOP 2019 drew a field of 2,577 entries and generated $1,352,925 in total prizepool. The increased starting stack and massive field forced the tournament to go an extra day, which saw the final 12 players returning to battle it out for the title and bracelet.
In the end, the bracelet and the top prize of $205,605 went to Las Vegas-based poker pro – Andrew Donabedian who has been a regular grinder on the WSOP Circuit but he had never earned bracelet.
“Winning a bracelet is awesome honestly. I got a bracelet before I got a ring, I play a lot of circuit events and got a lot of second and thirds, but no win yet. I guess I was saving the win for the bracelet. I don’t feel like I need to win a ring now, because I have one better,” Donabedian told WSOP reporters.
Donabedian scooped some decent pots at the final table to eventually reach heads-up with Todd Dreyer who played well but could not go all the way and finished runner-up for $126,948. On the last hand of the tournament, Dreyer limped and Donabedian raised to 5,400,000. The call was made by Dryer and they went to the flop Jc 10s 8d. Donabedian bet 3,000,000 and Dryer shoved all-in with 9s 8s 5h 4h against Kh Qd Jh 9d. The turn and river came 10c and 8c and did not save Dryer. Dryer had to finally settle for $126,948, while Donabedian took home the top prize of $205,605.
Team India
The Deep Stack saw several Indians in action and three of them managed to cash out, namely Abhishek Goindi, Deepak Bothra and Vivek Rughani. While Rughani got busted on Day 1 itself, finishing 294th for $1,026, Bothra (406,000) and Goindi (312,000) managed to enter Day 2, which began with 215 players. Bothra was the first to exit and he finished 83rd for $1,856. Goindi, however, kept going and had reached the level 30 where he finally got busted in 52nd place for $3,606.
The tournament saw a large number of notable pros and some of them who managed to score were Tom Franklin (7th), Alex Condon (9th), Zach Gruneberg (17th), Will Failla (25th), Upeshka De Silva (26th), Mark Radoja (27th), Danny Wong (33rd), and Chris Moorman (57th) to name a few.
Final Table Payouts (USD):
| 1 | Andrew Donabedian | $205,605 |
| 2 | Todd Dreyer | $126,948 |
| 3 | Robert Valden | $92,672 |
| 4 | Corey Wright | $68,258 |
| 5 | Mihai Niste | $50,732 |
| 6 | Alexandru Ivan | $38,051 |
| 7 | Tom Franklin | $28,803 |
| 8 | Florian Fuchs | $22,006 |
| 8 | Alex Condon | $16,971 |
