Dominik Nitsche (23), a young poker ace from Minden in Germany has won his third World Series of Poker bracelet and $335,659 after emerging victorious from event 21, a $1,000 buy-in NLHE contest which attracted a field of 2,043 players.
This week he entered the WSOP record books as the youngest yet winner of three bracelets.
Despite his skill and experience, it was no walk-over for Nitsche, who faced a determined Dave D’Alesandro with a chip lead in the heads up, which proved to be something of an endurance test over 92 hands of highly competitive poker.
For much of that 92 hands Nitsche was hanging on by his fingernails, but he maintained discipline and late in the match managed to take and hold on to the lead and eventually eliminate his last and very tough opponent.
D’Alesandro exited with a hard-earned $208,931 as runner-up.
The rest of the final table claimed prizes as follows:
Badih Bounahra $145,229
Zachary Gruneberg $104,594
Thayer Rasmussen $76,443
Jeff Gross $56,549
Eric Milas $42,382
Billy Horan $32,168
David Burt $24,702