Soriano Santiago Wins $800 No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack Bracelet

Anyone who has played no-limit hold’em inevitably has a story about their pocket aces getting cracked.

Santiago Soriano was on the opposite side of that story in a hand that secured his first World Series of Poker bracelet Tuesday night.

On the final hand of the $800 no-limit hold’em deepstack, Soriano cracked Amir Lehavot’s pocket aces to win the 3,759-entry tournament, his first piece of WSOP gold and $371,203.

With blinds of 1,000,000-2,000,000 and a 2,000,000 big blind ante, Soriano raised to 5,000,000 on the button and Lehavot called out of the big blind. The flop was 10 high and they got Lehavot’s last 22,700,000 into the middle.

Soriano showed J-10 and needed help against Lehavot’s aces. A 10 came on the turn and the third-place finisher in the 2013 WSOP main event fell just shy of his second bracelet. Lehavot earned $229,410 for second.

“It was surprising he had that big of a hand,” Soriano told WSOP reporters after his victory. “I flopped top pair, and heads-up, top pair is very, very good. Then I bet pretty big and he raises, and I bet all-in and he has the aces. It was unfortunate for him that the 10 was in there on the turn, but it was really amazing.”

Santiago also picked up 660 Card Player Player of the Year points for his win. It’s his first cash of 2019 for the Spanish poker pro that takes up residence in the UK, which puts him in 501st place in the 2019 POY race, sponsored by Global Poker.

The eight-handed event kicked off its final day at 1 p.m. Tuesday with 10 players remaining and one elimination from a redraw to the unofficial final table.

Gustavo Hess was the first player eliminated and the final nine combined with Soriano holding the chip lead. He dominated the entirety of the final table.

Soriano knocked out Jeff Tahler in ninth, Daniele D’Angelo in seventh, Samuel Gagnon in sixth and Ben Underwood in third to set up the heads-up battle with Lehavot.

Lehavot and Soriano started heads-up play with nearly identical chip counts. Soriano opened up a 2:1 chip lead on the first hand of heads-up when he made a full house and got paid off.

A couple hands later, Lehavot picked up aces and left the tournament area with a bad beat story.

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.

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