Action folded to Seyoon Lim in the small blind who jammed a short stack. Michael Acevedo was in the big blind and after checking his cards, quickly made the call to put Lim at risk and headed to a runout.
Seyoon Lim: Q♣3♥
Michael Acevedo: A♠J♠
The 9♣3♦6♣ flop was a good one for Lim as he jumped into the lead with two cards to come, but the board pairing 9♠ turn card provided Acevedo with extra outs for the win.
The 6♠ river provided one of those newly acquired outs and gave him the best hand, sending Lim to the payout window in fifth place for $79,700.
Niveau 37
: Blinds 500,000/1,000,000, 1,000,000 ante
Martin Raus
Josef Snejberg raised to 2,000,000 from the button and found one caller in Martin Raus from the big blind before seeing the flop come 2♦A♣10♦.
Raus checked over to Snejberg who continued with a bet of 1,300,000. Raus thought for a short time before making the call and watching as the J♦ hit the turn.
Raus checked it to Snejberg again and again, Snejberg reached into his stack and came back with a bet in the amount of 3,200,000. Raus decided on making the check-call again to see the 2♣ fall on the river.
Raus checked a third time and once more, Snejberg went into his stack and came out with a huge stack of chips good for a bet of 11,000,000. Raus asked the amount before quickly flicking in a call to see that Snejberg was on the three-barrel bluff when he turned over the K♠4♠.
Raus quickly tabled the A♠10♣ and collected a pot that made him the newly minted chip leader with almost double his next closest competitor.
Jackson Santos opened to 2,000,000 from the cutoff and Martin Raus defended from the big blind.
Both players checked the 7♥6♣5♣ flop leading to the K♠ on the turn. Raus checked, Santos bet 3,000,000 and Raus moved all in with a covering stack. Santos, who had roughly six million behind, made the call to put himself at risk.
Jackson Santos: A♥A♦
Martin Raus, 4♣3♥
Santos had an overpair but was drawing dead against Raus who had flopped a straight, leaving Santos drawing dead by the turn. After the 5♠ river was dealt Santos made his exit from the tournament area while Raus took down another healthy pot.
Niveau 39
: Blinds 1,000,000/1,500,000, 1,500,000 ante
Michael Acevedo
Michael Acevedo moved all in from the button for approximately 11,000,000 and Martin Raus called from the small blind with a covering stack to put Acevedo at risk.
Michael Acevedo: J♦J♠
Martin Raus: A♠Q♥
"Fair Fight" Raus commented before the K♥8♠5♥ flop was dealt. Acevedo looked to be in good shape to double up but the A♣ turn left him drawing to two outs. The A♦ river improved Raus to trips to take the pot while Acevedo's deep run came to an end in third place.
Niveau 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Josef Snejberg
Josef Snejberg jammed the button for roughly 18,000,000. Martin Raus checked his cards and put in calling chips to set up a runout with five cards between himself and a bracelet.
Josef Snejberg: Q♥8♥
Martin Raus: A♦J♣
The board ran out 6♣J♠A♣8♣3♦, securing the pot for Raus and sending Snejberg home one spot short of the bracelet with a second place finish for $194,800.
Niveau 40
: Blinds 1,000,000/2,000,000, 2,000,000 ante
Martin Raus
The final day of Event #4: $1,000 Mini Main Event of the 2023 World Series of Poker Paradise has come to a close here at Atlantis Resort in beautiful the Bahamas with Martin Raus standing alone to hoist the WSOP gold bracelet and the first-place prize money worth a massive $334,380.
The event drew a massive field of 2,234 entries and created a staggering $2,234,000 total prize pool. When the day began, 23 hopefuls returned for the final day of play, all of whom had one goal in mind; to navigate their way to the winner's circle and claim the most coveted prize in all of poker and to say that everyone came to play would be an understatement as the field reduced itself from 23 to the final table in just over two hours.
Final Table Payouts
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Martin Raus
Canada
$334,380
2
Josef Snejberg
Czech Republic
$194,800
3
Michael Acevedo
Costa Rica
$143,200
4
Jackson Santos
Brazil
$106,300
5
Seyoon Lim
Korea
$79,700
6
Ami Barer
Canada
$60,300
7
Yuzhou Yin
China
$46,100
8
Liviu Bartha
Romania
$35,600
9
Guoliang Wei
China
$27,700
Raus wasn't shy about his excitement, immediately planning to go get a very nice bottle of red wine with a few friends who were ready to celebrate his massive achievement. He had been overheard earlier talking about having won an online tournament a while back that had over 62,000 entries and was quick to point out that this victory was, "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!"
Action of the Day
With the start time being pushed back by two hours due to the late hour of play the night before, one might think that this event could have run pretty late into the evening, but that notion was torched pretty quickly as players started falling left and right. During one short 10-minute period, the pace of play saw three eliminations happen in quick succession. When the field reached the unofficial final table of 10, there wasn't much waiting as it only took about 20 minutes of play for the field to boil itself down to the official final table of nine.
It wouldn't even be 15 minutes before there was another preflop all in when Yuzhou Yinjammed from the button with only the big blind to beat. He'd ultimately get called and remain unimproved through five cards to exit the tournament in seventh place. Next to find the rail was Ami Barer who was all in preflop in what turned out to be a three-way pot with a massive side pot being played for, but when the cards were turned up, he'd finish last among the three and head toward the door in sixth place.
Michael Acevedo was next to the hit the payout desk and pave the way for the heads up battle to follow when he was on the losing side of a classic flip that sent him home with a third place finish that gave him his biggest career live cash by a multiple of well over 10x.
Michael Acevedo
When heads up play got underway, Raus held just about a 3:2 chip lead and while his opponent Josef Snejberg did put up a fight, Raus would never relinquish the lead and used his chip position to force Snejberg into tough decisions until eventually, Snejbergfound a jam from the button only to watch Raus wake up with a big hand in the big blind that would spell the end of the tournament for Snejberg.
Martin Raus
Holding onto his sense of humor even in a moment as big as this, he said, "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."
In his parting words, he expressed gratitude to the World Series of Poker for putting on a bracelet series in such a beautiful location and already plans to return when the WSOP heads back down to Paradise next year.
That does it for coverage of this event, but the WSOP Paradise from the Atlantis Resort in the Bahamas isn't over yet so keep it locked to PokerNews for continued coverage of the remaining events here at the 2023 WSOP Paradise!
