On Saturday, the final two players from a 1,832-entry field returned to action in the 2019 World Series of Poker Event #16: $1,500 NLH 6-Handed. On the line were a $407,739 top prize and coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
It took just four hands for long-time poker pro Isaac Baron, 31, to emerge victorious to capture his first piece of WSOP hardware.
"I’ve played these tournaments for 12 years and have never gotten one, so it feels good."
“I’m feeling pretty good. It’s been a long time coming getting this first bracelet. I’ve wanted it for a while and am just glad it was pretty easy today,” Baron said in his winner interview. “I’m not sure what it means for my career, but it feels good. I’ve wanted a bracelet for a long time. I started out watching the World Series. I’ve played these tournaments for 12 years and have never gotten one, so it feels good … I don’t really know how to put it into words. It feels like a long time coming.”
A former online pro known as “westmenloAA” and “Isaac Baron,” Baron won Card Player Magazine’s first-ever Online Player of the Year Award in 2007. While it was Baron’s first WSOP bracelet, he has had several other high-profile scores including a career-best $1,207,599 for finishing third in the 2014 PCA, fourth in the 2008 EPT4 Grand Final for $932,006, and runner-up in the 2015 WPT Bay 101 Shooting Star for $704,200.
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (USD)
1
Isaac Baron
United States
$407,739
2
Ong Dingxiang
Singapore
$251,937
3
Stephen Graner
United States
$177,085
4
James Hughes
United States
$126,011
5
Richard Hasnip
United Kingdom
$90,791
6
Cameron Marshall
United States
$66,243
7
Pierce McKellar
United States
$48,954
Day 3 Action
Ong Dingxiang came into Friday's Day 3 second in chips and never looked back. Dingxiang tallied up numerous eliminations throughout the day including that of Day 2 chip leader Romain Nussmann. Baron was another player who got off to a really hot start on Day 3 after eliminating Hans Joachim Hein, Marc Robinson, Nicholas Dolen, Ryan Brown and Henry Lu.
On Hand #48 of the final table, Stephen Graner opened with a raise to 260,000 from the cutoff, Dingxiang three-bet to 930,000 on the button and action folded to Baron, who four-bet to 2,600,000 from the big blind. Graner got out of the way and Dingxiang tagged along. Baron check-called the 1,700,000 bet from Dingxiang after a flop of jack-high and both players checked a nine on the turn. The river came with an eight putting a jack-high straight on the board. Baron checked to Dingxiang who put out a bet of 6,600,000 and Baron instantly called with a queen-high straight only to see Dingxiang roll over a king-high straight.
"I was just exhausted and didn’t feel like I was necessarily playing my best."
“I knew if I got to heads up anything could happen,” Baron said. “When we were four handed that’s kind of what I was thinking.”
Dingxiang raked in a monster pot that had over a third of the chips in play. The duo would go on to play more than 100 hands heads up before breaking for the night. During that time Baron essentially evened the stacks.
“He wanted to keep going, I wanted to stop,” Baron said of the break. “It was a combination of I had just doubled him up so he had a little momentum and also, I was just exhausted and didn’t feel like I was necessarily playing my best. I just wanted to go to sleep and it worked out.”
Ong Dingxiang
In just the fourth hand of action on Day 4, Baron raised with turned out to be pocket aces and just called when Dingxiang three-bet. Dingxiang bet after flopping top pair of queens with his king-queen and again Baron just called. The turn was a brick and Dingxiang jammed. Barron had him covered, called, and held when a three bricked the river.
Baron is going to relish the moment today and tomorrow plans to head back home to L.A. for some rest and relaxation with plans of returning to the WSOP later in the summer.
“I don’t like doing the whole WSOP so I have to try to break it up,” he said. “I’m just going home for ten days and then I’ll be back.”
This concludes the coverage for this event but stick around as the PokerNews live reporting team will be here all summer to bring you all the action from Sin City. You can also watch the live-streamed final table action all summer long at PokerGO.
