Martin Raus Wins The Mini Main Event At World Series Of Poker Paradise

Martin Raus – Photo Credit: WSOP / Matthew Berglund

Martin Raus has topped the field in the Mini Main Event at the World Series of Poker Paradise tournament series hosted by the Atlantis Resort & Casino in the Bahamas. The top prize was worth $334,380, and Raus was awarded his first gold bracelet with his second career tournament victory. His total earnings now stand close to $1.4 million.

“Way better because people can see this one. The other one I was sitting on my couch in my underwear when I won it, so this one is way better,” said Raus to reporters after his big live win. He continued with a laugh, “I did the math two days ago and realized that if I don’t lose the last hand of the tournament, I’m gonna do okay and I didn’t lose the last hand I played.”

The $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament saw a field of 2,234 runners that created a prize pool worth $2,234,000 to top the guarantee of $1 million. The top 335 players took home at least $1,700 in prize money.

After four starting flights and one play-down day there were still 23 players in the hunt for the title on the final day of play. Previous bracelet winners that made a deep run in the event included Renji Mao (32nd), Yuequi Zhu (49th), Anthony Zinno (67th), Will Jaffe (74th), Chris Brewer (85th), and Weiran Pu (93rd).

Raus was in the middle of the pack when the final table began around 4:30 pm local time, and action went fast to kick off the final table. The first three players fell in the course of 20 minutes, with Josef Snejberg scoring all of the knockouts to build a huge chip lead.

Raus scored a huge double-up during four-handed play at the expense of Snejberg, and he took control of the chip lead a short time later. Raus then got to the task of taking down his opponents when he eliminated Jackson Santos in fourth place, and Michael Acevedo in third place. That gave Raus 63.6 million at the start of heads-up play against the 48.1 million held by Snejberg.

Raus carried his upward momentum throughout the final match, winning multiple pots to extend his chip lead before the last hand of the tournament. That hand saw Snejberg shove preflop with Q8, but Raus saw him down holding AJ. The final board of the tournament was dealt AJ683, and Raus held the lead throughout the hand to eliminate Snejberg in second place. He took home $194,800 for his runner-up finish, and that put the poker player from the Czech Republic’s career earnings above $1.76 million.

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

WSOP Paradise will be hosting events through Dec. 14, including the $5,000 buy-in main event that kicked off today. You can check out the full schedule for the tournament series right here.

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