Making a World Series of Poker final table and being inches away from a WSOP Gold Bracelet is a dream many poker players share but realized by few. Zewei Ding found himself in that position today, but his dream nearly turned into a nightmare as soon as the final table began.

Just one hand in, Ding faced what seemed like the ultimate cooler, with his pocket kings up against Dirk Schumacher’s pocket aces. However, a miraculous runout allowed Ding to come out on top, and from there, he dominated the final table of Event #14: €1,000 NLH Turbo Freezeout, ultimately defeating Stepan Khachaturyan heads-up to take home the lion’s share of the €150,000 prize pool and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

“It’s really exciting for sure. It takes many years,” Ding shared, noting that his victory was also the first time he had ever cashed at King’s Resort.

Given the fast structure of this event, with 20-minute levels, the action kicked off at a blistering pace from Level 1. It 바카라사이트 took under seven hours for the field of 152 entrants to be narrowed down to 23 paid spots. Some notable players who joined the field but fell short of the money include Candido Cappiello, Tobias Peters, Alexandre Vuilleumier, and Vivian Saliba.

Marius Schneider and defending champion Bernd Gleissner shared the title of bubble boy, as both players were eliminated at separate tables during hand-for-hand play. Schneider had his pocket jacks cracked by Gal Naim’s pocket sevens, while Gleissner’s ace-four suited failed to hold up in a blind-on-blind confrontation against Pascal Pflock’s nine-five. Both Schneider and Gleissner split the min-cash, each taking home €1,142, while the 22 remaining players were guaranteed at least €2,284.