The 23-year-old German poker pro Dominik Nitsche bested a 126-player field to claim the honours and the $352,800 main prize in the buy-in 2014 WSOP National Championship in Atlantic City Saturday.
The entry list was made up of made up of the top WSOPC performers over the season plus freeroll qualifiers on WSOP.com, but the top 100 WSOP Player of the Year point leaders could also buy in for $10,000, and Nitsche availed himself of that option
The young German faced a six-man final table that included Athanasios Polychronopoulos, Matthew Ashton, Christopher Bibb, Tracy Doss and Andrew Robinson and was played outdoors on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk.
Heads-up it was Nitsche vs. Athanasios Polychronopoulos with the German holding a 2 to 1 chip lead that he managed to leverage into victory after just 31 hands, sending his Greek opponent home with a still creditable $218,056 second placing pay check.
In all, the final table took just five hours to reach a conclusion and award Nitsche with his second WSOP winner’s bracelet.
Former WSOP Main Event champs Ryan Riess and Greg Merson were among those who anted up $10,000 to enter for the event, but neither made the final table.