Aristeidis Moschonas has secured an unforgettable win in the Event #42: $600 Mixed NLH/PLO Deepstack of the WSOP 2019. He played top notch poker, rebuilding his stack after being down to less than a big blind on Day 1 to claim his first WSOP bracelet and $194,759 in top prizemoney.
The poker pro from Greece defeated Dan Matsuzuki in heads-up, thus denying Matsuzuki his second bracelet. It was a long and tough journey for Moschonoas to clinch the victory as he had to defeat a massive field of 2,403 entries to claim $194,759 and the coveted bracelet for his top-notch performance. With this major win, the Greek Pro took his total live tournament earnings to $449,130.
Talking about his amazing run in the Mixed NLH / PLO Deepstack, the champion – Moschonas said, “I was down to half a big blind after the first four levels. I doubled up four times and that’s it.”
Moschonas plays a lot of online poker and is regarded as one of the best pot-limit Omaha players. When the final day of this WSOP event started, Moschonas was in the middle of the pack and Adam Lamphere was the chip leader, with the runner-up Matsuzuki holding the second largest stack for the day. The most accomplished poker player coming into the final day was Rainer Kempe. The German pro, who holds over $20 million in live earnings though, was in search of his first bracelet.
Matsuzuki got off to a good start and took the chip lead from Lamphere when he busted Daniel Moravec in eighth place. Lamphere’s stack further dropped down when Raghav Bansal doubled through him. Eventually, Lamphere was busted by Kempe when he got all in with A-K-Q-10 against Kempe’s A-J-J-9. The board ran 9d 9s 6d Qc 8d and Lamphere was busted in seventh place ($28,006).
Kempe then shoved all in with his A-Q-J-5 against Stephen Ma’s K-3-2-2. The board ran out 6s 5h 7c Jh Ad. Ma went out in sixth and Kempe moved into the chip lead. The next player to bust was India’s Ashish Ahuja, who had entered the final day as 6th in chips with 6,975,000. He was eliminated by Matsuzuki in fifth place ($48,914). Ahuja had AK93 against AAQ3 of Matsuzuki. While the flop and the turn gave some hope, the river card went blank for Ahuja and he hit the rail in fifth place.
With four players left, Moschonas made his way to the top and eventually to the coveted bracelet. The player first doubled through India’s Raghav Bansal and then again through Kempe. Kempe then got eliminated in fourth place when he shoved all in with K-10 against Bansal’s A-Q.
After eliminating Kempe, Bansal has taken the lead into 3-handed play with 32,700,000. A little later, Bansal lost some of his chips to Matsuzuki. Bansal then became short stack in a 3-way all-in pot where he shoved all-in with Qc Jd against Moschonas’s Jc Jh, Matsusuzki’s As Js. Moschonas tripled up, while Matsuzuki dragged the substantial side-pot from Bansal, who came down to 7,200,000.
India’s chase for the bracelet in this event eventually came to an end when Bansal’s Jc 8c failed to beat Ad 5h of Moschonas and he was eliminated in third place for a hefty $88,410 for his efforts.
After busting Bansal, Moschonas took about a 2.5:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Matsuzuki. Moschonas went on to extend his lead and eventually won the tournament for $194,759 in top prize.
Final Table Payouts:
| 1 | Aristeidis Moschonas | $194,759 |
| 2 | Dan Matsuzuki | $120,374 |
| 3 | Raghav Bansal | $88,410 |
| 4 | Rainer Kempe | $65,482 |
| 5 | Ashish Ahuja | $48,914 |
| 6 | Stephen Ma | $36,852 |
| 7 | Adam Lamphere | $28,006 |
| 8 | Daniel Moravec | $21,469 |
