Following up on our earlier report that the Summer Solstice event at the World Series of Poker was down to the heads up stage between Spain’s Adrian Mateos (22) and Koray Aldemir of Austria, we can now report that the former took the honours in a hard-fought finale that left Mateos with his second WSOP bracelet and $409,171 in prize money, and Aldemir with a second placing pay day of $252,805.
The two had survived five days of torrid competition as they made their way through a field of 1,840 to face each other in the heads up, with the Austrian holding a small advantage, but Mateos relentlessly narrowing the gap before seizing the lead.
By the time the exhausting heads up completed Mateos had extended that lead to around 11 to 1 , and despite his best and very creditable efforts, Aldemir was unable to hold out, falling to a pair of fours in the final hand, and heading home with the runner-up prize.
Mateos’ first bracelet was achieved in 2013, when he defeated the older and more experienced Fabrice Soulier in the European version of the World Series, earning himself $1.3 million. Prior to that momentous occasion, the young Spaniard – barely old enough to play – had grabbed the headlines with a win in the main event of the Estrellas Poker Tour that boosted his bank balance by $137,247.
With other cashes in between the high profile games, his career earnings have climbed swiftly to just short of $5 million.
Mateos appears set to claim more prize money at this year’s WSOP – so far he has enjoyed three cashes and appears hungry for more.
Here are the cashes for the rest of the final table in the Summer Solstice event:
Alessandro Borsa $182,835
Ralph Wong $133,588
Jon Turner $98,617
Jackson White $73,563
Ronald McGinnity $55,455
Stephen Ladowsky $42,252
David Tovar $32,540