LAS VEGAS (AP) — The marquee no-limit Texas Hold ’em main event of the World Series of Poker is down to two players, both rookies, after a poker pro was eliminated Saturday night.
Either Scott Blumstein or Daniel Ott will go home more than $8.1 million richer after winning the premier poker event in Las Vegas. The champion will also get a gold bracelet made from white and yellow gold and diamonds and rubies that can fit his final hand.
Poker pro Benjamin Pollak was eliminated after putting his last 35.6 million chips on the line on a queen of clubs and 10 of diamonds. But Blumstein, of Brigantine, New Jersey, had the strongest hand out of the three remaining players.
The community cards laid out on the table were jack of spades, three of diamonds, king of diamonds, four of clubs and six of spades. Blumstein increased his chip count to more than 232 million with his ace of hearts and queen of spades, while Ott, of Altoona, Pennsylvania, reached a 128 million chip count with king of clubs and nine of diamonds.
Pollak, who told reporters he was “disappointed” about his elimination, left the tournament with $3.5 million. His supporters sang, waved the French flag and held a sign that in French said “Let’s go Ben.”
Blumstein, Ott, Pollak and six other players reached the final table after having bested more than 7,200 participants. Each of the final nine were guaranteed at least $1 million.
The famed tournament is the end of this year’s series, where dozens of tournaments drew 120,995 entrants from around the world, shattering attendance records. The men who made the final table represented the United States, Argentina, France and Britain.
Before Pollak walked away from the table, an accounting error paused play for a few minutes. Organizers were forced to recount chips after a hand in which Ott doubled up to almost 70 million chips, while Pollak dropped to about 23.3 million. But Pollak did not have that amount of chips in front of him after the hand.
Series spokesman Seth Palansky said 10 million chips were miscounted. He explained the dealer had pulled chips from Pollak’s stack, but he was unaware and ended up paying Ott, too.
Chips have no monetary value in the tournament. Each player has to lose all his chips before he is eliminated from the final table.
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