Canadian poker player Pablo Mariz managed to outperform a field of 7 758 players, who participated in Millionaire Maker Event, organized by the World Series of Poker, conquering the chip-lead position in an exciting heads-up battle in the late hours of Wednesday.
The 27-years-old poker player reached the top position in the list of players, outplaying his opponent Dejuante “D.J.” Alexander in a heads-up duel. After losing his chip-leading position on the final table, Mariz still managed to keep control over his play and thus, he reached the heads-up battle. This victory, along with his second place in Event #10: $1,000 Tag Team No-Limit Hold’em will send him to the leading positions in the list of players, who will participate in Kings Casino Rozvadov Player of the Year competition.
His runner-up, on the other hand, missed an opportunity to add WSOP gold bracelet to his collection of trophies, leaving him only with the WSOP Circuit ring. This event added to the player’s earning the significant amount of $754,499 due to his deep run in the game.
The first-prize winner, though, changed his plans and decided to participate to the end of the poker festival. He shared that he is encouraged by the prize and he is excited to continue to the end of the series.
Following the course of the game, Mariz had a short stack of chips during most of the time, but he managed to catch up and become a stack leader for most of the Day 4 of the event, which welcomed 14 players. The number of players was quickly reduced to only 9, who appeared on the final table.
It did not take long till the players started to drop off one by one and Mariz managed to amass more than half of the chips in play and brought it to the three-handed table, where he needed to play against his soon-to-become a heads-up opponent Dejuante “D.J.” Alexander and Alex Farahi, who finished at third place, bringing home a prize of $561,530.
The heads-up took also a fast pace, in which Mariz was holding [Q][c] [J][d] and called the Alexander’s all-in bet, who was holding [A][c] [3d]. The flop gave Alexander a pair of threes, which encouraged him that he will be the winner of the event. The turn, in fact, did not affect the game of both of the players, as it brought [10s]. But the game was not finished, as the river gave the decisive card, which was [Q][s]. Thus, Mariz managed to derail his opponent with a pair of queens over Alexander’s pair of threes.
The event welcomed 7 758 players, out of who 1 165 were given a money prize. Thanks to the great interest in the event, the prize pool was swollen to $10,477,350. The heads-up battle between the two opponents was thrilling enough, as it took an unexpected turn in the last minutes.
