Nick Maimone Wins First World Series of Poker Gold Bracelet

Nick Maimone defeated a field of 1,438 total entries in the 2020 World Series of Poker Online $1,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em ‘Marathon’ event to win the top prize of $302,472. The American poker pro was well known in online poker circles during the boom years of the mid 2000’s, playing under the screen name ‘FU_15’. He has also had plenty of live tournament success, accruing more than $2.1 million in scores prior to winning this event. While he has won 11 live tournament titles and countless more online, this latest victory earned him his first WSOP gold bracelet.

The strong turnout for this event resulted in a $2,049,150 final prize pool, which was paid out among the top 206 finishers. A number of big names made it down to the final few tables, including recent WSOPO $5,000 six-max no-limit hold’em bracelet winner Ravid Garbi (26th – $9,245), bracelet winner and 2011 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure main event champion Galen Hall (21st – $9,245), and Tim Reilly (13th – $17,555).

The final table began with Ermo Kosk sitting in the chip lead, with Erik Lemarquand and Nikolay Motsenko sitting on the next-largest stacks. Maimone sat in sixth chip position when action resumed. Bert Stevens was the first to fall. He ran K-Q into the pocket aces of Motsenko and failed to improve, earning $24,190 as the ninth-place finisher.

Despite entereing the final table with the second largest stack, Erik Lemarquand was the next to hit the rail. He ultimately got the last of his chips in with 109 on a 953 flop and found himself at risk facing the KK of Motsenko. The turn and river brought no help and Lemarquand was knocked out in eighth place ($33,334).

Murilo Nascimento got all-in with QQ and was up against the 108 of Ermo Kosk. The KQJ flop gave Nascimento middle set while Kosk picked up both a flush draw and an open-ended straight draw. The A on the turn gave Kosk the lead by filling his straight, which held up on the 7 river. Mascimento cashed for $45,933 as the seventh-place finisher.

Kosk lost a flip shortly after that to fall out of the chip lead. He then found himself on the wrong end of a cooler, getting all-in with pocket tens against the pocket aces of Giovani Torre. The larger pair held and Kosk was left as the shortest stack. He was eliminated not long after when he ran Q-7 offsuit into the pocket kings of Maimone. Kosk earned $63,295 for his sixth-place showing.

Sebastian Sikorski’s run in this event came to an end when his A2 came up against the AK of Diego Bittar. The superior kicker played by the river and Sikorski was knocked out in fifth place ($87,219).

Maimone earned his second knockout at the final table with QQ, which held up against the AJ of Nikolay Motsenko after all of the chips went in preflop. Motsenko settled for $120,186 as the fourth-place finisher. Maimone moved into the chip lead after the hand.

Giovani Torre called off the last of his stack with K9 from the big blind and was ahead of the Q6 of Maimone, who had shoved from the small blind. The Q448A runout gave Maimone the best hand, though, and Torre was eliminated in third place ($165,613).

With that Maimome took a slight lead into heads-up play against Diego Bittar. He was able to extend his advantage to roughly a 5:2 chip lead after winning a big pot with a straight against the two pair of Bittar. In the final hand Bittar limped in from the button with A5 and then called all-in when Maimome shoved from the big blind with the K8. The board came down K1066J and Bittar was knocked out as the runner-up ($228,212).

Here is a look at the payouts awarded at the final table:

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