WSOP Main Event: And the Winner is...
The 2012 World Series of Poker Main Event is over, and a new World Champion has been crowned. Which of the 3 remaining players is heading home with the $8.5 million first-place prize?
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| 2012 WSOP Champion Greg Merson |
Poker players everywhere dream of money and fame, and there's no better way to acquire both of those things than winning the biggest event of the year - the WSOP Main Event.
After 9 days of play (7 this summer and 2 this week), just one player was left standing at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas. He accumulated the entirety of the 197,970,000 chips in play and defeated a field of 6,598 players.
That player was Greg Merson, a 24-year-old American poker pro from Maryland.
For his accomplishment, Merson will receive a massive $8,531,853, the title of 2012 World Champion of Poker, his second WSOP bracelet.
On top of that, Merson has just edged out Phil Hellmuth in the WSOP Player of the Year race with this finish, so Hellmuth is finishing 2nd in that leaderboard for the 2nd consecutive year (last year he narrowly lost to Ben Lamb).
To find out how the final 3 players played to a champion, check out the summary on this page. You can also check out our other WSOP Main Event content for a more in-depth look at what happened at the final table:
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| $8.5 million, Main Event and Six Max Bracelets, WSOP Player of the Year, not a bad year for Greg Merson |
PokerStrategy.com WSOP Final Table Live Ticker How the table went from 9 players to 3-handed Check our forum thread to discuss the final table with fellow PokerStrategists Check our PokerStrategy.com Podcast interview with Greg Merson from last week
What happened on Day 2 of the Final Table?
Merson starts with lead - When play began, Greg Merson was the chip leader with about 88 million chips. Jesse Sylvia was in second with 62 million, and Jacob Balsiger was in 3rd with 46 million. All three players were actually very deep - even Balsiger's short stack was worth over 75 big blinds.
Big stack bully - The first few hours of play was basically just Greg Merson bullying his opponents with his bigger stack. Sylvia and Balsiger seemed to play with great fear of going out in third place, and allowed him to take down the majority of pots.
Stacks get closer - Progressively, the stacks of all 3 players became quite close - at one point, all 3 players had between 58 and 73 million chips. It wouldn't be long, however, before Greg Merson regained his dominant position.
Merson's sick bluff - Greg Merson limped the button and was raised from the big blind by Jacob Balsiger. Merson called and the flop came 9h8s3c. Balsiger bet 4.5m and Merson called. The turn was the 4h, and Balsiger bet again - 7.5m this time. Merson called, and on the river 6s Balsiger took his time and bet another 13m. Merson moved all-in, Balsiger folded, and Merson showed JhQh - a pure bluff. Balsiger was left with under 40m chips.
Sylvia sucks out for the lead and Merson grinds it back - Jesse Sylvia and Greg Merson got all of their chips in the pot - Merson had KdKh and Sylvia had AhKs. The board came 3s5c2d8h4h, giving Sylvia the straight and the 85m to 74m lead over Merson. After that, Merson slowly but surely took it back, including a large hand where he called down a Sylvia bet with top pair. After a few hours he was back over 100m chips having played very few large hands.
Balsiger manages to take the lead - After literally hours of play with Sylvia and Merson securely above Jacob Balsiger, Balsiger finally took his turn to grab the chip lead. On a 9-high flop, he got all of his chips in vs. Jesse Sylvia holding Pocket Kings - Sylvia had King-9. The hand left Sylvia with roughly 20 big blinds, and brought Balsiger to 90 million chips.
Chips get even... again - After a brief stint as the short stack, Jesse Sylvia doubled through Balsiger holding bottom two pair vs. Balsiger's top pair on the flop. By the end of the hand the stacks were unbelievably similar, with all three players holding between 55 and 74 million chips. These similar stacks amazingly occurred after over 9 hours of 3-handed play.
Balsiger finally busts - After hours and hours of tedious grinding, Jacob Balsiger finally found himself with about 10 big blinds. He 3-bet shoved over a Jesse Sylvia raise and was called by Greg Merson who held KcQs. Balsiger's QhTd was not in good shape, and it didn't improve when the board ran 6s6d6cJc5h. Balsiger hit the rail but was in great spirits about collecting $3.8 million for his efforts. Check out our exit interview with Balsiger lower on this page.
Merson wins! - After extending his lead cautiously while heads-up, Merson made an aggresive all-in shove over a Sylvia preflop raise with Kd5d. With an effective stack of roughly 35 big blinds, Sylvia tanked and eventually called with just QsJs! The flop ran 6c3h9d6s7c, and Greg Merson was crowned the 2012 World Champion of Poker. Sylvia may regret his call looking back on it, but the $5,295,149 he's taking home with him ought to help with the pain.
Congratulations to Greg Merson, the 2012 World Champ!
WSOP 2012 Event 65: $10,000 No Limit Hold'em Main EventFinal Payouts |
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| Place | Name | Prize | ||
| 1st | Greg Merson | $8,531,853 | ||
| 2nd | Jesse Sylvia | $5,295,149 | ||
| 3rd | Jacob Balsiger | $3,799,073 | ||
| 4th | Russell Thomas | $2,851,537 | ||
| 5th | Jeremy Ausmus |
$2,155,313 | ||
| 6th | Andras Koroknai |
$1,640,902 | ||
| 7th | Michael Esposito | $1,258,040 | ||
| 8th | Robert Salaburu | $971,360 | ||
| 9th | Steven Gee | $754,798 | ||
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Players: 1 (6,598) | Prize Pool: $62,021,200 |
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Video interviews and pictures from the final table
PokerStrategy.com's own Tobias 'samagain' Block was at the Rio Casino interviewing some of the final tablists and poker pros at the event.
Interview with 2nd place finisher Jesse Sylvia:
Interview with 3rd place finisher Jacob Balsiger:
Interview with 4th place finisher Russell Thomas:
Interview with 5th place finisher Jeremy Ausmus:
Interview with Andrew 'LuckyChewy' Lichtenberger:
Interview with 7th place finisher Michael Esposito:
Interview with 9th place finisher Steven Gee:
Here are some pictures from the Rio. You can find the rest on our Facebook Page.
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| The final three players looking to make WSOP history |
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| Greg Merson dictating the play |
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| Phil Ivey railing Greg Merson |
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| The first main event final to take place on Halloween |
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| Jacob Balsiger sweating the flop |
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| Merson's cheering section |
Jesse Slyvia stands with his rail |
It's over? Congrats to Greg Merson WSOP Champion AND Player of the Year WOW! Well deserved he clearly played the best. Hard to argue!
— Daniel Negreanu (@RealKidPoker) October 31, 2012
Congrats to @gregy20723 for winning the @wsop Main event and to my buddy @jesse_sylvia888 for getting runner-up!!!
— Marvin Rettenmaier (@MadMarvin) October 31, 2012
Goooo @gregy20723 !!! He played good. He was patient. He earned it. Biiiiiig congrats again. Really happy for him. twitter.com/MagicAntonio/s…
— Antonio Esfandiari (@MagicAntonio) October 31, 2012
Congrats to @gregy20723 well deserved. Congrats to @jesse_sylvia888 too. Both played great
— Pius Heinz (@MastaP89) October 31, 2012
So many congrats to @gregy20723. He played amazing and absolutely deserved this. What a great main event champion!
— Vanessa Selbst (@VanessaSelbst) October 31, 2012
Finished in 2nd place for $5,295,149. Congrats to Greg and thanks to my family, friends and rail for their unbelievable support!
— Jesse Sylvia (@Jesse_Sylvia888) October 31, 2012
Weeeeee @gregy20723 !!!!
— Michael Phelps (@MichaelPhelps) October 31, 2012
By Matt Kaufman
