Rami Boukai Wins His Second World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet

Rami Boukai is no stranger to fighting it out for a title. Boukai was a mixed martial arts fighter before trading in MMA for a career as a poker pro. Boukai secured his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet by taking down the 2019 WSOP $1,500 eight-game mix event, defeating a field of 612 entries. He took home $177,294 for the win.

The event was only scheduled to last three days, but an extra day was needed when play was halted a little after 2:00 a.m. local time, with both Boukai and John Evans still in contention.

Boukai had scored the first knockout of the six-handed final table, winning a preflop race in no-limit hold’em with AK against the JJ. Boukai hit a king on the flop and held from there to send Rubinstein packing with $24,292.

Boukai’s next victim was Allen Kessler. The man known to many as “The Chainsaw” got his last chips in preflop with A2 and got called by Boukai out of the big blind holding Q8. The board came down Q7346 and Boukai made a pair of queens to lock up the pot. Kessler took home $24,292.

Philip Long won this event in 2018, and came incredibly close to defending his title this year. His run came to an end in Omaha eight-or-better. With a flop of A109, Long put his last chips in with AKK10 for top two pair. John Evans called him with 4432. The turn was the 6 to give Evans a low draw. The 4 on the river gave him the scoop, with a set and the nut low. Long was awarded $49,531 as the fourth-place finisher.

Chris Klodnicki quest for his second career bracelet ended in deuce-to-seven triple draw, when he ran into the 8-6-5-3-2 of Boukai. Klodnicki ended up with ace high after missing his draws and was eliminated in third place ($72,933). Not long after that hand ended, play was stopped for the evening.

Boukai took roughly a 3-to-1 lead into heads-up play against Evans when play resumed on the unscheduled fourth day. He was able to extend that advantage to more than a 10-to-1 lead buy the time the final hand was dealt. In limit hold’em, Evans limped in form the button with 74 and Boukai checked his option holding Q5. The flopd came down 543 and Boukai bet. Evans raised and Boukai called. The K on the turn saw the rest of the chips go in. Evans was in need of help, but the 10 on the river didn’t bring any. Evans was knocked out in second place, earning $109,553 as the runner-up finisher.

Boukai was awarded 840 "Card Player Player of the Year ":https://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/player-of-the-year/%20points as the champion. This was his first POY-qualified score of the year, but it alone was enough to see him climb into 251st place in the 2019 POY race standings, which are sponsored by Global Poker.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.

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