Konstantin Maslak Wins 2015 WSOP $2,500 Omaha/Seven Card Stud Eight-or-BetterRussian Chess Grandmaster Earns First Bracelet And $269,612 |
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Konstantin Maslak topped a field of 474 players in the 2015 World Series of Poker $2,500 buy-in Omaha/seven card stud eight-or-better tournament, capturing his first gold bracelet and $269,612 in prize money. The 30-year-old from Volgograd, Russia took up poker just six years ago, but with a strong background in other strategy games has quickly become proficient at poker.
“I am a chess grandmaster,” said Maslak after play ended. “But I saw my friends playing poker and decided to try it. I liked it, so I continued to play. I mostly play on the Internet.”
This was Maslak’s third cash of the summer but his first final-table finish. In addition to the title and the money he was also awarded 1,080 Card Player Player of the Year points, enough to move him into 83rd place on the overall POY leaderboard.
The event took four days to complete, with Maslak, Hani Awad and Benjamin Dobson being the only three to survive to the final day. Awad came into the final table with the lead while Maslak was the short stack, but he was able to rebuild a bit and then went on to eliminate Dobson in third, bringing him even closer to catching up with Awad. When they got down to heads up Maslak appeared to take over, taking the lead and wearing down Awad before dealing the final blow in seven card stud eight-or-better.
Awad lost a big pot after folding on sixth street in the penultimate hand. He was left with just over one big bet and got that in with the (K
8
)7 against Maslak’s (Q
7)K. The boards ran out as follows:
Awad: (K8)79410
(10)
Maslak: (Q7)K622(8)
Maslak made a flush on sixth street to leave Awad drawing dead. Born in Isreal but now living in Las Vegas, Awad earned $166,583 and 900 POY points for his runner-up showing.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:
| Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
| 1 | Konstantin Maslak | $269,612 | 1080 |
| 2 | Hani Awad | $166,583 | 900 |
| 3 | Benjamin Dobson | $105,893 | 720 |
| 4 | Viacheslav Zhukov | $76,357 | 540 |
| 5 | Tuan Vo | $55,923 | 450 |
| 6 | Brandon Paster | $41,581 | 360 |
| 7 | Chris Birchby | $31,379 | 270 |
| 8 | Jose Paz | $24,036 | 180 |
| 9 | Glenn Engelbert | $18,677 | 90 |
For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2015 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.
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