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Scott Blumstein crowned 2017 WSOP Main Event Champion

The 73rd event of the 2017 World Series of Poker festival has now concluded, culminating with a new world champion being crowned in Las Vegas. The event in question, was of course the fabled Main Event – a poker tournament that attracts players from across the world each year. 7,221 were drawn like moths to the bright lights of Las Vegas for the 2017 Main Event, generating a prize pool of $67,877,400. After 10 days of play, just one would walk away with $8,150,000

Scott Blumstein becomes world champion

Scott Blumstein - (Image: Jayne Furman/pokerphotoarchive.com)
Scott Blumstein – (Image: Jayne Furman/pokerphotoarchive.com)

Scott Blumstein was not short of confidence coming into the WSOP this year, with friends claiming that he had skipped all the events in the series except the one he said he was going to win – the Main Event. As a smaller stakes tournament grinder, he certainly had experience of navigating large fields on his side, and the way he moved through the Main Event pack was clinical. He finished with a strong stack at the end of each day, bagging a top 70 stack on days 2, 3 and 4 before bagging a top 20 stack on days 5 and 6. He then bagged the biggest stack each day after that, on his way to becoming world champion.

For a tournament grinder who turned pro four years ago, emulating the champions he had seen lifting this bracelet over the years was the accomplishment of an incredible and unlikely dream.

After winning the event Blumstein said “I’m still in shock. I thought I would get even more emotional than I did in real-time, but it’s just the best feeling. I can’t even put it into words”. The 25 year-old from New jersey claims he has never had a real job outside of playing poker tournaments. He’s unlikely to be needing one anytime soon.

The story of the final table

The final table was a lengthy affair, but through all the action that took place, one moment stands out. With Scott Blumstein and John Hesp both having huge chip stacks, it seemed remarkably cruel for chip leader Hesp that his AxTx would run into the AA of Blumstein on a board of Ax7x5xTx. All the chips went in on the turn, seriously damaging Hesp and catapulting Blumstein up to a 156 million stack that was twice the size of his nearest challenger. From there, he never looked back.

Ben Lamb had been the first casualty of the final table, being unable to improve on his 3rd place finish in this event in 2011, but bettering his 14th place from 2009. In the year of 2009, we also saw Antoine Saout making the final table of the Main Event. The Frenchman was back again this year, but also couldn’t improve on a previous 3rd place finish, eventually falling in 5th. Former bracelet winner Bryan Piccioli was unable to use his experience to mount a serious challenge either, finishing 6th.

In the end, it was Dan Ott who would face off against Blumstein, and he could do nothing to derail the imposing chip leader that stood between him and the title.

Before the Main Event, Blumstein had a few hundred thousand dollars in live cashes. Now he has almost $8.5 million, and is the 2017 WSOP Main Event champion.

Final payouts are as follows:

1st – Scott Blumstein – $8,150,000
2nd – Dan Ott – $4,700,000
3rd – Benjamin Pollak – $3,500,000
4th – John Hesp – $2,600,000
5th – Antoine Saout – $2,000,000
6th – Bryan Piccioli – $1,675,000
7th – Damian Salas – $1,425,000
8th – Jack Sinclair – $1,200,000
9th – Ben Lamb – $1,000,000

Article by Craig Bradshaw