UK poker pro Andreas Olympios has emerged the winner in the Party Poker – World Poker Tour 500 tournament at the Aria in Las Vegas, besting a field of 3,956 to claim the main prize of $260,000…his largest live tourney pay day yet.
His victory was all the more remarkable for the fact that he started the final day of the competition with the lowest chip stack, but was able to remain relaxed and confident, building his stack through judicious play and several big double ups to finally claim the win.
When final table action started Wesley Hickey held a substantial chip lead, and he survived into the heads up. But it was Olympios who faced him in the finale and he had the bigger stack – almost 3 to 1 – after staging an impressive fightback through the final table.
The disadvantage was too big to overcome, and in ten hands it was all over, with Hickey cashing as runner up for $185,000.
The rest of the final table cashed:
Drazen Ilich $135,000
Robby Seurynck $100,000
Jonathan Opas $75,000
Sanjay Mayekar $58,000
Khoan Ho $45,000
Guy Gorelick $35,000
Guy Cicconi $27,150
See the winner’s post-match Youtube interview here: