Benjamin Zamani appeared to be the chip leader at the final table of Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better and thus, he managed to win the first prize worth $238,620 and the Player of the Year honors by topping a field of 905 entrants.
Early on Sunday, the German-born poker player Benjamin Zamani grabbed the crown from WSOP Event #4: $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo Split 8 or Better after a tiring struggle with his runner-up Jared Hemingway, who walked off the table with $147,428.
The final table was entered by 29 players, but only Benjamin Zamani, Jared Hemingway and Alex Ferrari managed to reach the top three positions. They appeared with almost the same stacks of chips. Even though Ferrari proved himself to be a good player, he witnessed a sequence of bad cards and thus, he took the third place and $103,471. It was namely Zamani, who managed to eliminate Ferrari and consequently, he added a significant amount of chips to his own stack.
Zamani entered the heads-up with a chip advantage over his opponent, estimated to be 3:1. Despite the massive blinds, which caused some significant changes in the stacks of chips of both players, the game was still not finished. Nevertheless, all the efforts, which Hemingway placed to compensate the significant difference in chips, appeared to be void, since Zamani managed to estimate the situation properly and find the perfect moment to push his opponent.
Level 30 was the final level of the tournament, but Zamani and Hemingway agreed on playing one more level. At this point, Zamani was the chip lead with 10:1 over his runner-up. Furthermore, Zamani managed to hit a high hand and a straight over the trip fours of Hemingway.
At the end of the game, Hemingway’s stack of chips was melted to 20,000, which is less than a small blind. Zamani, in the position of the big blind, forced his opponent to bet all-in. The German-born poker player was holding a low hand and a pair. Hemingway could not beat any of these hands and Zamani granted himself the first position, bringing home the first prize and the gold bracelet.
It is reported that this is the second gold bracelet, which the player wins. The first one he won in 2015 in a $1,500 no-limit hold’em event. The winner commented his opponent’s game briefly, describing it as a skilful and experienced. He explained that one of the reasons to gain the upper hand over Hemingway is because he entered the heads-up battle with a hefty stack of chips.
On Saturday Benjamin Zamani participated at two WSOP poker tables simultaneously and he managed to win one of them. The other event, in which Zamani also participated was featuring No-limit hold’em variation of the game. Regardless of the fact that the player was “double-tabling”, he managed not only to perform good, but also to bring home first prize and second gold bracelet.
