20 players – all that remained from a starting field of 474 – survived to the third and last day of Event 54 of the World Series of Poker and gathered at the Rio in Las Vegas to compete for the best share they could get of the $1,294,020 prize pool in the event, a $3,000 buy-in Pot Limit Omaha Hi Low 8 Ball of Better competition.
The man to watch proved to Hamburg, Germany poker pro Florian Langmann (32), an accomplished internet and live tournament player with a penchant for playing aggressively, which he quickly demonstrated as he set about crushing the opposition.
A final table of 9 – all but Langmann from the US – was reached after just four levels of play and comprised: Florian Langmann holding a major chip lead, Zack Freeman, Dylan Wilkerson, Doug Baughman, Terry Eisenman, Antony Lellouche, Woody Deck, Jonathan Depa and Shiva Dudani.
Langmann continued to plough his way through the final table with Dudani first out after two hours of action, and others following in a steady stream until the heads up was reached, which found Langmann leading on 3.2 million chips against Zach Freeman’s stack of a million.
The advantage was too great for Freeman to overcome, and within a few hands he had been eliminated by the on-form German, who was playing his thirteenth final table for his 36th cash..
Freeman went home with $184,216, whilst a delighted Langmann claimed his first WSOP bracelet and the winner’s prize of $297,650, bringing his career earnings to well over $2 million.
It wasn’t his biggest win – that was achieved with a half-million Euro take-home at the EPT London main event in 2007 – but it was certainly one he will remember.
Other final table cashes were:
Dylan Wilkerson $122,427
Doug Baughman $90,853
Terry Eisenman $68,181
Antony Lellouche $51,670
Woody Deck $39,506
Jonathan Depa $30,448
Shiva Dudani $23,641