19-year-old Adrian Mateos defeats star-studded final table; wins final bracelet of 2013 and €1,000,000
While Mateos wasn’t the biggest name at the final table in Paris, he was the player with the most potential. And that potential was realised a little sooner than most expected last Friday.
Having the likes of Benny Spindler, Dominik Nitsche and Fabrice Soulier to get through was a tough ask for the young Spaniard, but it was made a little easier with the first bust out.
Former EPT winner Spindler ran a huge bluff against the fantastically named Frenchman Jerome Huge. After check-calling flop and turn bets on 9♥-6♠-5♥–A♦ Spindler check-raised all-in on the seemingly blank 5♣ river. It was a small river bet from Huge and after a long tank that may have been the reason behind his call. It was a good one, as the German flipped 3♣-2♣ for the complete bluff and Huge proudly showed his A♠-7♥.
Spindler exited pretty quickly after, losing with pocket Queens to Mateos and his K♣-T♥. And the youngster’s run good continued when he flopped two-pair against Ravi Raghavan’s royal flush draw and held to knock him out in fifth.
Jerome Huge did a ‘Spindler’, emulating the aggressive German by bluffing off his stack to Soulier. To his credit, he did at least have bottom pair – no match for the Aces up of his countryman.
Bluffing was getting contagious and three-handed it was Nitsche’s turn. With the blinds at 20,000/40,000/4,000, Mateos opened to 85,000 on the button and Nitsche three-bet to 225,000 from the big blind. On the Q♠-T♥–2♦ Nitsche led for 180,000 and Mateos called. The 3♣ turn saw the same happen with a 290,000 bet. By the 5♦ river Nitsche’s 400,000 bet looked valuey but Mateos made the thin call with pocket sevens and was rewarded when the German mucked.
A short while later the players clashed again, this time Mateos holding with A♠-7♥ against his opponents 9♥–8♦ after the chips flew in preflop.
It left hometown favourite Fabrice Soulier to battle it out with Mateos for several hours. The momentum swung back and forth, with the Frenchman winning a huge pot with trips and chipping away slowly to grab the lead. But Mateos snapped off a Soulier bluff with top pair and soon had him all-in on 4♣-J♥-9♠. Mateos – whose only previous big score was an Estrellas main event for €103,053 – found the call with A♠-K♣ and was way behind a pair of nines. Luckily for him, the dealer flipped the K♠ on the turn to hand the Spaniard victory!
2013 WSOPE Main Event results:
1) Adrian Mateos – €1,000,000
2) Fabrice Soulier – €610,000
3) Dominik Nitsche – €400,000
4) Jerome Huge – €251,000
5) Ravi Raghavan – €176,000
6) Benny Spindler – €126,000
Photo courtesy of WSOP.com
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