Jeffrey Hakim Takes Down World Series of Poker Paradise Mini Main Event

With 2,031 entries made across five starting flights, the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise $2,500 buy-in mini main event had more than $5 million in prize money to award. The top 306 finishers earned a share, with six figure payouts for the final seven contenders. The largest payday of all went to eventual champion Jeffrey Hakim, who earned $575,050 and his first WSOP gold bracelet for the win.

“I dedicate it to the kid in me, in my 20s, who chased this dream for so long…you end up getting to the point where you don’t think it can happen,” said Hakim in an interview with WSOP’s Jeff Platt after coming out on top. “Definitely hasn’t sunk in, as everyone says.”

This was a new career-best score for Hakim, who has live results at the WSOP dating back to 2008. Thanks to this victory, his career earnings now sit at nearly $2.6 million.

The 1,620 Card Player Player of the Year points that Hakim secured as the champion were enough to move him inside the top 350 in the 2024 POY standings sponsored by Global Poker.

Hakim was hardly the only highly-accomplished player to run deep in this event. Five other players among the final nine had multiple millions in prior earnings. World Poker Tour champions Aram Oganyan (9th – $70,135) and Matas Cimbolas (8th - $91,020) were knocked out early at the final table. They were soon joined by businessman and high-stakes tournament regular Paul Newey (7th – $120,600), who now has over $6 million in career cashes after this strong showing.

Matthew Frankland had finished eighth in the WPT Rock’n’Roll Poker Open $3,500 main event just days before making this final table. He backed up that deep run with a sixth-place finish good for $152,300 and 540 POY points. As a result, he climbed to 106th in the POY rankings, with two titles and eight final-table finishes so far in 2024.

Belarus’ Andrei Piatrushchanka eliminated Ryan Gebow (5th – $202,100) to narrow the field to four. Hakim then won a big preflop race with KQ facing 77 for Viktor Ustimov. Hakim rivered the nut flush to send Ustimov to the rail with $261,500, which grew his career haul to over $3.9 million.

Piatrushchanka held the lead early in three-handed play, but was ultimately the next to be eliminated. He lost a big one with aces up against a set of sixes for Hakim to give up the top spot on the leaderboard. He then lost a big coin flip with pocket tens against A-Q for Hakim, which made aces up by the river to eliminate Piatrushchanka in third place ($344,000).

Hakim took a massive chip lead into heads-up play against another Belarusian in Alina Paliahoshka. All of the chips soon went in with Paliahoshka’s A6 facing 33 for Hakim. The QJ75Q runout did not connect with either player and Paliahoshka was knocked out in second place ($445,400).

We have an interview with the Winner of the Mini Main Event Jeffrey Hakim ! Let's hear what he had to say! @JeffPlatt #MiniMainEvent #wsopPARADISE https://t.co/EhM63jpytk pic.twitter.com/KMoo4jjnXx

— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) December 12, 2024

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

Photo provided by WSOP.

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