On October 15, Cole Ferraro had navigated his way through a field of 1,385 entries to the heads-up in Event #22: $1,000 Freezeout No-Limit Hold’em. He ultimately fell just short of securing his first bracelet, finishing second to earn a career-best $123,142. Now, two weeks later, he has managed to top an even larger field of 3,916 entries in Event #61: $600 Deepstack Championship No-Limit Holdem, besting Sami Rustom heads up to surpass his own best WSOP finish and win $252,491.
Ferraro is a 22-year-old college graduate who has been playing online poker for just a year and a half. This is his first WSOP series and the win feels like a dream come true for the player. With the victory, he took his earnings to $397,441, with 2 six figure scores coming from this series only.
Final Day Recap
The tournament built $1,997,160 in prize pool that was shared by the top 588 players. The final day began with 40 players remaining. There were several big names like two-time bracelet winners in Barry Shulman (26th for $8,633) & Mark Seif (25th for $8,633), along with Ping Liu (19th for $8,633).
From Team India, it was only MPL Poker Ambassador Dhaval Madgal who could make it to the final day. Mudgal entered the final day with 31st position in chips among the 40 survivors. He managed to chip up early in the day but his dream run came to an end in 30th place for $7,120 (INR 5.30 Lac). On his last hand of the tournament, Mudgal got his 1.9 Million stack in with A-3, and Rubin Chapell called with pocket tens. The board did give Mudgal a pair of treys, but it wasn’t enough to beat the pocket tens. The was Mudgal’s second cash and also the best score at the ongoing series. Soon after, Mudgal entered Event #65: $1,000 Mini Main Event but busted before the money bubble.
In total, four Indian players cashed in this event. The other three Indians had fallen out on Day 2 and they included popular pros in Shuchi Chamaria (57th for $4,184 – 3.11 Lac), Nipun Java (92nd for $2,301 – INR 1.71 Lac), and poker coach Abhishek Goindi (384th place for $1,201 – 89,475).
Ferraro started the final day on a shorter stack but battled his way into second place by the time the final table was set. Ronald Slucker (9th – $25,359) and Rubin Chappell (8th – $32,169) were the first two eliminations from the FT. Following them were Xiangdong Huang (7th), Edgardo Rosario (6th), Richard Dixon (5th), Bart Lybaert (4th), and Sean Dunleavy (3rd) all falling in quick successions.
Sami Rustom regained the lead by busting Sean Dunleavy out in 3rd place ($117,822) and started the heads-up with 70,690,000 over 49,000,000 of Ferraro who managed to finally win the tourney.
Ferraro closed the gap by picking a bluff from Rustom with pocket nines on a ten-high board. He then took the lead by winning a big pot with a straight. From there, he continued his domination and eventually took down the title. On the final hand, Rustum limped for 800,000 and Ferraro raised to 6,000,000. Rustom moved all-in with 4s 4h and Ferraro called with 10d 10c. The board ran out 9s 5h 2s 5c 10h, giving the title to Ferraro. Rustom had to settle for the runner-up payout of $156,056.
Final Table Payouts (USD)
- Cole Ferraro – $252,491
- Sami Rustom – $156,056
- Sean Dunleavy – $117,822
- Bart Lybaert – $89,587
- Richard Dixon – $68,604
- Edgardo Rosario – $52,914
- Xiangdong Huang – $41,108
- Rubin Chappell – $32,169
- Ronald Slucker – $25,359