A complete of 515 hopefuls descended on the baize at King’s Resort for the €1,100 NLH Thriller Bounty on the 2024 World Collection of Poker Europe (WSOPE), however just one participant cracked the code. Amir Mozaffarian emerged victorious, securing his first-ever WSOP bracelet together with a hard-fought €69,050 prime prize.
Having come agonizingly shut earlier within the sequence with a runner-up end within the €5,000 PLO, Mozaffarian lastly struck gold. Over two intense days, he skillfully navigated the stacked area and the stress of high-stakes bounty searching to clinch poker’s final prize—the elusive gold strap.
Mozaffarian ran rampant on the remaining desk, tearing by means of the competitors along with his relentlessly aggressive fashion. He despatched 4 of the seven different gamers to the rail, together with a devastating clean-up of the final three rivals standing in his means.
The ultimate hurdle for Mozaffarian was none apart from his compatriot Paco Kaplan, however the heads-up match proved to be extra of a formality than a fierce showdown. In lightning-fast vogue, Mozaffarian dispatched Kaplan, wrapping up the battle in virtually no time to say the biggest share of the €484,100 prize pool.
Ultimate Desk Outcomes
*the highest three prizes embrace a €10,350 WSOPE Principal Occasion ticket
Winner’s Response
“It feels great, superb. Having a bracelet is without doubt one of the most desired issues you will get as a poker participant,” had been the primary phrases Mozaffarian mentioned after talking solely with PokerNews.
“I used to be actually using the rollercoaster right this moment. My stack was up and down a lot, after which I used to be successful a whole lot of flips, so I believed, oh, perhaps there’s something doable right this moment,” he said as he soaked in his triumph.
“I had an enormous chip lead, however the job is rarely finished as a result of Shaun [Deeb] is a extremely, actually good participant and could be very harmful. Nothing is protected when you will have a chip lead,” Mozaffarian mentioned.
Ultimate Day’s Motion
When the day obtained underway, 103 bounty-hunting hopefuls had been eligible to struggle for his or her share of the €154,500 bounty pool regardless of not but being within the cash.
A complete of 78 spots had been on supply within the cash, and the final participant to depart empty-handed was Genc Zekaj when his ace-king could not overcome the pocket jacks of Dan Maricuta.
Shaun Deeb began to climb up the counts after selecting up two bounties in the identical hand when his ace-jack held in opposition to two weaker ace-holdings.
One of many gamers that Deeb busted in that hand was Philipp Krieger. Nevertheless, it wasn’t all doom and gloom for the German participant, as he had collected three bounties earlier than his demise. The primary bounty he pulled was value €900, however the second was the largest—€45,000. A 3rd bounty of €3,000 introduced the haul to €48,900, plus his money of €1,435 was not a foul technique to exit a match!
Among the notables that made the cash however fell wanting the ultimate desk embrace Martin Kabrhel (seventieth), Ankit Ahuja (51st), Gabi Livshitz (twenty third), Fabio Peluso (twenty second), Tobias Peters (fifteenth), and the ultimate desk bubble boys Genc Shabani (tenth) & Ondrej Goetz (ninth).
With ten gamers remaining, Shabani and Goetz had been eradicated virtually concurrently, with the previous hitting the rail simply moments earlier than Goetz fell to Deeb, which introduced round an eight-handed remaining desk as an alternative of the anticipated 9.
Going into the ultimate desk, it was Viorel Gavrila who held the chip lead with round 42 massive blinds, and he was carefully adopted by Kaplan and Deeb, who each had 30 massive blinds every.
Yehor Shumeiko was the primary to fall when he put in his final 5 massive blinds with queen-six, and could not overcome the ace-king of Mozaffarian. Simply moments later, John Armbrust joined him on the rail when his flopped two pair with seven-eight was no good in opposition to the straight of Gavrila, who held five-six.
The elimination continued at a fast tempo as Zdenek Zizka obtained his final eight massive blinds into the center with pocket eights however got here up quick in opposition to the pocket tens of Lorenzo Arduini.
A vital pot performed out between Mozaffarian and Gavrila, severely impacting the desk’s dynamic. Mozaffarian opened the button after which referred to as off his stack of twenty-five massive blinds after Gavrila shoved from the large blind. Gavrila’s ace-ten was miles forward of Mozaffarian’s ace-nine, however a flush on the river gave Mozaffarian the win, which prevented Gavrila from being the runaway chip chief.
It was then Deeb’s flip to take his place on the prime of the counts after he awoke with aces within the massive blind when Gavrila had three-bet shoved over Kaplan’s open.
Arduini then misplaced a flip with ace-king in opposition to the pocket jacks of Kaplan, which introduced play all the way down to four-handed. The boldness ranges of Mozaffarian had been evident when he bluffed Deeb with ten-high proper earlier than a break in play, which catapulted him into the chip lead and left Deeb with a brief stack.
With three €10,350 WSOPE Principal Occasion tickets on supply to the rostrum finishers, four-handed play was a good affair, with chips being exchanged forwards and backwards between the gamers. Deeb began to construct momentum, however that was compelled to bet-fold the river in opposition to Mozaffarian, which once more despatched him tumbling all the way down to the underside of the counts.
Moments later, Deeb’s run ended after he shoved king-four and could not overcome the King-nine of Mozaffarian. That meant the ultimate three gamers had navigated their technique to a WSOPE Principal Occasion ticket, and it was sport on for the remaining payouts.
The very subsequent hand, after eliminating Deeb, Mozaffarian claimed one other bounty after he despatched Gavrila to the rail, which gave him a commanding four-to-one chip lead over Kaplan heading into heads-up play.
Mozaffarian’s lead swelled to roughly eight-to-one, and within the remaining hand of the evening, Mozaffarian shoved with king-six, and Kaplan referred to as with queen-five. The board left each gamers unimproved, which meant Mozaffarian’s king-high was good for the pot and the title.
