Norbert Szecsi earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet Tuesday, winning 2013 WSOP Event #42: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em. It was just the fourth WSOP cash of his life (all but one has come his summer) and the $345,037 prize for first place is more than double the total of all his previous live tournament cashes combined.
Exactly 2,100 players entered the $1,000 buy-in event, one of several on the schedule this year. By yesterday’s Day 3, just 11 players remained, led by Brit Rory Mathews with 898,000 chips. Szecsi was in third place with 738,000. After two eliminations brought about the official final table, though, he was down to 510,000, one of the shorter stacks at the table.
When play was down to six-handed, he was the shortest stack, seeing his chip count dip below 300,000. As the brisk final table went on (it lasted just five hours and 132 hands), Szecsi began to see his luck turn. On one key hand, he shoved pre-flop for 251,000 with K-Q and was called by Mathews, who had pocket Sixes. The turn paired Szecsi’s King, allowing him to double-up to 525,000.
Then, in a gigantic lucky hand, Szecsi moved all-in under the gun pre-flop for 495,000 with pocket Nines. Kirby Martin immediately shoved for 1.5 million, forcing Chris DeMaci to fold after some thought. The scene wasn’t good for Szecsi: Martin had Aces. But every champ needs the poker gods on his side at some point and they certainly were on Szecsi’s side here. He flopped a set and rivered quads to double-up again, taking his stack to a million chips.
Shortly thereafter, Martin was all-in for close to a million chips on the turn with top two pair and Szecsi called him with the second nut flush draw. The flush came through on the river as Martin was unceremoniously dumped in fourth place while Szecsi was suddenly sitting on a stack of 3.25 million chips.
After knocking out DeMaci in third place (Kings versus A-T), Szecsi went into heads-up play with Denis Gnidash holding a 3.8 million to 2.5 million chip lead. It took just six hands to end the tournament. Szecsi raised pre-flop to 80,000, Gnidash re-raised to 205,000, and Szecsi called. Gnidash continued the aggression on the all-spade 9-T-A flop, betting 225,000, and once again, Szecsi called. Gnidash checked the 3 on the turn, but called when Szecsi bet 340,000. When a 6 was dealt on the river, Gnidash check-called all-in, flipping over A-Q. That was good, but not as good as Szcesi’s A-T, which gave him two pair and the World Series of Poker bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Event #42: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Norbert Szecsi – $345,037
2. Denis Gnidash – $214,760
3. Chris DeMaci – $149,281
4. Kirby Martin – $107,512
5. Rory Mathews – $78,576
6. Bryce Landier – $58,126
7. Ariel Celestino – $43,564
8. Dana Buck – $33,065
9. Jonathan Bennett – $25,392
