Georgios Sotiropoulos Wins Third Bracelet In $1,000 Mini Main Event

Georgios Sotiropoulos won his third WSOP bracelet Friday afternoon at the Rio. With a victory in the $1,000 mini main event, the Greek pro won a bracelet online, in Europe, and in Las Vegas.

Sotiropoulos defeated a huge field of 3,821 entries and Japan’s Wataru Miyashita heads-up to win $432,575, which was the second-largest score of his career behind only a runner-up finish in €5,300 no-limit hold’em event in 2013 at a European Poker Tour stop in Prague worth the equivalent of $957,180. With his most recent cash, he now has more than $3.4 million in career tournament earnings.

Friday’s victory was his second bracelet of 2021. He won his second career bracelet over the summer during the WSOP Online international series on GGPoker. He took down the $200 no-limit hold’em flip & go event for $117,022. His first bracelet came during the 2015 WSOP Europe in an €1,100 no-limit hold’em for $128,252.

“It’s an amazing achievement,” Sotiropoulos told WSOP live reporters about his third piece of WSOP gold. “I really love the World Series of Poker, Las Vegas, the tournaments, the people here. Everything excites me. Makes me come again and again, playing more and winning more. Feeling grateful.”

With an identical structure to the $10,000 main event, which kicked off Thursday afternoon, except for 30-minute levels instead of 120 minutes, the field actually reached the final table late on Day 2 and the nine-handed table was trimmed to just five before bagging up for the night.

Jordan Meltzer eliminated Erkut Yilmaz in ninth when he moved all in with A-5 and ran into Meltzer’s Q-Q. Yilmaz couldn’t spike a three-outer and was the final table’s first elimination.

A short-stacked James Morgan moved all in for his last 5.5 big blinds with 5-5 and was looked up by Miyashita’s K-7 in the small blind. Miyashita flopped top pair to win the race and eliminate Morgan in eighth.

Sotiropoulos entered the final table as one of the shorter stacks but doubled up early and then eliminated David Tuthill in seventh. Tuthill got his money in good with K-Q against Sotiropoulos’ K-10, but a 10-high flop left Tuthill drawing thin.

He turned a gutshot straight draw on a board of 10859, but the K came on the river, which gave Sotiropoulos top two pair, eliminating the Florida native in seventh and moved Sotiropoulos into the chip lead.

Matthew Jewett was eliminated by James Patterson just before the end of the night, which wrapped up with Sotiropoulos bagging up the chip lead by a massive margin. The eventual winner bagged up more than 2.5 times Meltzer, who finished Day 2 second in chips. Sotiropoulos held nearly half of the chips in play at the end of the day.

Day 2 was dominated by Sotiropoulos, but the first half of the final day was all Miyashita, who eliminated the first three players and started heads-up even in chips with Sotiropoulos.

Miyashita’s AQ bested James Rubinski’s A7, then won a flip with 8-8 against Patterson’s A-9 and finally sent Meltzer home in third when his A-K held up against Meltzer’s A-6 suited. Those three eliminations happened within the first 30 minutes of Friday’s play.

Miyashita took a small lead at the start of heads-up, but Sotiropoulos picked off a bluff to regain the lead.

A cold deck ultimately ended the final day in less than two hours. In a limped pot, Sotiropoulos check-called a bet on a flop of Q107 and the Q came on the turn. Sotiropoulos check-raised and Miyashita moved all in.

Sotiropoulos quickly called with 32 and was in the lead against Miyashita’s Q8. Miyashita needed to fill up on the river, but the 5 completed the board and sent him to the rail in second. He earned $267,328 for his runner-up finish.

Final Table Results:

Photo Credit: WSOP/Hayley Hochstetler

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