Aristeidis Moschonas Wins $600 No-Limit Hold'em/Pot-Limit Omaha

After being down to less than a big blind on Day 1, Aristeidis Moschonas finished off an epic chip-and-a-chair story to earn his first World Series of Poker bracelet in the $600 no-limit hold’em/pot-limit Omaha deepstack event.

The poker pro from Greece defeated Dan Matsuzuki heads-up, denying Matsuzuki his second bracelet in as many years, to put the finishing touches on the victory. Moschonoas defeated a massive field of 2,403 entries and took home $194,759 for his efforts.

“I was down to half a big blind after the first four levels,” said Moschonas to reporters after the win. “I doubled up four times and that’s it.”

Moschonas plays a lot of online poker and considers pot-limit Omaha his specialty. Because of his online play, the 37-year-old opted to play the entire final table with a melon in his hands.

“When I play online and lose some pots, I call my opponents ‘melons,’” said Moschonas. “So that’s why I brought the melons. If I get a bad beat, I will give it to someone.”

Moschonas also picked up 540 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. It’s his third cash of 2019 and first final table, which puts him in 268th place in the 2019 POY race, sponsored by Global Poker.

Adam Lamphere was the chip leader at the outset of the final table of the eight-handed event, with Matsuzuki coming into the day second in chips. Moschonas was squarely in the middle of the pack.

Rainer Kempe, however, was the most accomplished player coming into the final day. The German pro has over $20 million in career tournament earnings and is a consistent winner in poker’s biggest buy-in tournaments. He was in search of his first bracelet, however.

Matsuzuki got off to a good start and overtook Lamphere for the chip lead when he eliminated Daniel Moravec in eighth.

Lamphere dropped down the chip counts when Raghav Bansal doubled through him on one of the next few hands. In Omaha, his kings couldn’t hold up against Bansal’s nut flush draw. Lamphere busted to Kempe when got all in with A-K-Q-10 with three spades against Kempe’s A-J-J-9 with nut hearts.

Kempe then got the best of a preflop all in with his A-Q-J-5 against Stephen Ma’s K-3-2-2. Ma was out in sixth and Kempe moved into the chip lead, while Moschonas was far and away the short stack five-handed.

Ashish Ahuja was eliminated by Matsuzuki in fifth and with four players left, Moschonas made his way up the leaderboard and eventually to his bracelet.

Moschonas first doubled through Bansal and then again through Kempe. Kempe then busted in fourth when he got all in preflop in no-limit hold’em with K-10 against Bansal’s A-Q.

The big turn of events came when Moschonas tripled up in a three-way all in. Bansal showed Q-J, Matsuzuki tabled A-J and Moschonas was in the lead with pocket jacks. Moschonas tripled up into the chip lead and Bansal became the short stack.

Bansal busted in third and Moschonas took about a 2.5:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Matsuzuki. Moschonas leaned on his chip lead and finished the job without much adversity.

Final Table Results:

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.

Most Viewed Articles