A rail filled with several notable high-stakes poker pros. Millions of dollars in prop bets on the line. And one of poker’s biggest names at the center of it all. That was the scene late Sunday night at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) as Tom “durrrr” Dwan was heads-up for his first bracelet, creating one of the most exciting non-Main Event final tables the WSOP has ever seen.
Many nosebleed players, including Mike Matusow, Daniel Negreanu, Eli Elezra, and David Benyamine, had bet six- and seven-figure amounts that Dwan would not win a bracelet this summer (each laid Dwan 3.5-1 odds). Most were on hand to watch Dwan at the final table of Event # 11, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em tournament, where Dwan entered the final nine with the chip lead. The aforementioned pros were holding their collective breath as Dwan made his way closer to his ultimate goal, which allegedly would net him around $8 million on top of the $614,000 payday for first place.
After hours of nerve-racking play Dwan found himself heads-up with Simon Watt, a 27 year-old software developer from New Zealand. Watt held a significant chip edge over Dwan and used it to bleed Dwan down even further. Finally, a short-stacked Dwan moved all-in pre-flop for his last 1.6 million chips with Qd-6c and Watt called instantly with 9d-9c. The ESPN tournament area erupted, mostly with those calling for a Queen, but Dwan remained still in his seat as he watched the dealer reveal a board of As-Ac-8c-Ad-Kh. When the river card hit, Dwan shook Watt’s hand and quickly slipped out of the Amazon Room before any media personnel could reach him. He would come back to pick up his $381,885 payday on Monday.
After the madness at the Rio calmed, Watt told the media he had only one friend hiding in the enormous Dwan-backed crowd, Joe Ellis. But he now has some high-stakes poker pros that will consider him a buddy for life. Matusow, according to PokerNews, walked over to Watt after the match and said, “Thank you for saving us all millions of dollars. How does it feel to be every high-stakes gambler’s hero?” Meanwhile, Negreanu posted his “congratulations” to Dwan on Twitter: “Congrats to Tom Dwan! We were all rooting for you… To come second! Wow I escaped. What a sweat that was.”
Watt, who became the first ever bracelet winner from New Zealand, has only one other recorded major tournament cash in his poker career, a win at the PokerStars Asia Pacific Poker Tour (APPT) championship in Auckland. This was his first ever cash at the WSOP, one that he’ll certainly never forget. “It was amazing. It was strange,” Watt said after he was awarded his bracelet. “It would have been crazy enough to just make the final table. But to play against ‘durrrr’ heads-up made it much better.”
As for the 23-year old Dwan, the bet lives on, and he plans on playing every event he can until the WSOP concludes in July. Should he make another deep run in an event, we’ll have all the updates here at Poker News Daily.
Event #11 Results:
1. Simon Watt — $614,248
2. Tom Dwan — $381,885
3. David Randall — $270,299
4. Austin McCormick — $194,939
5. Jason Young — $142,346
6. Michael Smith — $105,185
7. Marvin Rettenmaier — $78,681
8. Kyle Winter — $59,547
9. Eric Ladny — $45,603
