The 2014 World Series of Poker (WSOP) begins today, but one bracelet has already been awarded. Most people probably don’t realize it (I even forget sometimes), but the WSOP National Championship is held on the boardwalk in Atlantic City before the WSOP proper, celebrating the best WSOP Circuit players of the season. This is year, the fourth year the Championship has been held, 23-year old Dominik Nitsche nabbed the bracelet.
Even at such a young age, the German has already put together an impressive live tournament resume. According to TheHendonMob.com, he has nearly $3.4 million in career earnings, good for 11th on Germany’s all-time money list. This was his second WSOP bracelet, the first one coming in 2012 when he won one of the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em events for $654,797. Nitsche also won the World Poker Tour (WPT) Johannesburg Main Event that year, earning himself $206,153.
The final day of the tournament was held on Saturday with just six players remaining. Nitsche was not in great shape at the beginning of play, having only 350,000 chips, compared to the 1,422,000 of Matthew Ashton, the 937,000 of Athanasios Polychronopoulos, and the 546,000 chips of Tracy Doss. Behind Nitsche were Chris Bibb with 321,000 chips and Andrew Robinson with 157,000.
Robinson was the first to be eliminated on just the eighth hand of the day. Needing to do something, anything, to stay alive, he shoved with 6-8 and was called by Polychronopoulos with A-4. The board helped neither, keeping the A-4 in the lead and putting Robinson out of the tournament.
It took a number of orbits for the next elimination. On Hand 59, Doss raised to 50,000 pre-flop, Nitsche raised to 155,000, and Doss moved all-in for 400,000. Nitsche called with Tens, up against Doss’ A-J. The flop came down T-9-6, giving Nitsche a massive advantage, one which Doss could not overcome. He had to settle for the $86,461 awarded for fifth place.
Fifteen hands later, it was Bibb’s time to go. In another raise, re-raise, all-in situation, Bibb had all of his chips committed with A♥-7♦ and Nitsche had him covered with A♠-K♠. The flop of T♠-7♠-6♣ helped Bibb tremendously, but also gave Nitsche a flush draw. That flush came to fruition on the turn and Bibb hit the rail in fourth place.
Just a few hands later, Nitsche took out another opponent, as Ashton was all-in pre-flop with 3-3, against Nitsche’s A-J. Similar to the last elimination, Ashton flopped a set, but Nitsche made a flush to take him out. Unlike the last elimination, Nitsche didn’t have suited hole cards and instead needed to go runner-runner on the turn and river to make his hand. Either way, Matthew Ashton was shown the door in third place and the tournament was heads-up.
Going into heads-up play, Nitsche had more than a 2-to-1 chip lead on Polychronopoulos, 2,575,000 to 1,180,000. On Hand 107 of the final table, Polychronopoulos actually took the chip lead after doubling through Nitsche, but Nitsche quickly took it back, getting the chip stacks to about what they were to start heads-up play. On Hand 113, it was over. The two raised and re-raised each other pre-flop until they were both all-in, Polychronopoulos with A-T and Nitsche with A-8. The flop was K-8-2, giving Nitsche the lead; the turn and river were a 7 and 4, respectively, and Nitsche took down the WSOP National Championship and his second World Series bracelet.
2014 WSOP National Championship – Final Table Results
1. Dominic Nitsche – $352,800
2. Athanasios Polychronopoulos – $218,056
3. Matthew Ashton – $157,399
4. Christopher Bibb – $115,655
5. Tracy Doss – $86,461
6. Andrew Robinson – $65,734