For poker players, there's taking a shot, and then there's taking a shot — and that's exactly what Darius Samual did after risking half his bankroll to compete in the $25,000 Heads-Up Championship.
The gamble paid off in spades, as Samual emerged victorious in the event by besting six opponents in a row in the finals to earn his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet along with the $500,000 first-place prize here inside the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Samual's victory was all the more impressive considering he had to overcome a slew of poker juggernauts, including fan-favorite John Smith, Russian poker phenom Artur Martirosian, and Faraz Jaka, who has multiple poker titles to his name across various series.
"The match with John Smith, I think was [my favorite]," Samual explained. "His small ball style was a lot of fun and it lasted a long time."
Samual, who said he only started playing "big tournaments" within the past six months, explained he doesn't specialize in any particular poker format but was eager to take a shot.
"I don't have an exact area, I just play for fun and making some money," Samual told PokerNews. "I basically put 50 percent of my bankroll on one tournament. I really wanted to go for it and this payout is like 95 percent of my poker money now. I took a shot!
"I think I was the only one who didn't care about the bracelet. I only cared about the money," added the property businessman.
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Martirosian was arguably the man to beat today as he already had two WSOP bracelets to his name — one of which was from a $10,000 heads-up championship event online last year. Martirosian started the match off strong, using well-timed aggression and benefitting from an ill-timed bluff from Samual to pull out to an early lead.
Martirosian managed to build a 2:1 chip lead over Samual within the first few levels of play, but Samual's fortunes began to change once they were sent the the feature table. Shortly after being seated, Martirosian ran a multi-street bluff with ace-jack after flopping a gutshot draw, but Samual hung tough after flopping a pair of queens to flatten Matirosian's lead. Not long after, Samual took over the chip lead after flopping a pair of aces and getting three streets of value from Martirosian.
After a bit of back-and-forth, the final hand occurred after Martirosian got all in preflop with ace-ten against Samual's ace-king in a bit of a preflop cooler. The flop came king-high and ran out clean for Samual to earn his spot in the finals.
Across the room, Jaka got off to a bit of a rough start against Mamut after getting creative with ten-six suited, but he quickly rebounded by making a nice call facing a river three-bet bluff from Mamut. It was all Jaka from that point on, with several large pots ending in a fold by Mamut as the cards did not seem to go his way.
Mamut did manage to find a much-needed double-up after spiking two pair on the river against Jaka's single pair, but the momentum was short-lived. Several hands later, Mamut shoved preflop with king-queen and ran into Jaka's ace-jack. The board ran out clean for Jaka, which set the stage for the final match.
Heads-up Finale
Faraz Jaka
Samual jumped out to an early lead by making several strong hands against Jaka, who was largely card-dead and unable to connect with any flops. The pain continued for Jaka for several levels, including a hand where he semi-bluff raised with a pair and a straight draw and was forced to fold facing a shove from Samual.
Not long after, the rest of Jaka's chips went into the middle in a classic preflop race, with Jaka holding ace-king and Samual holding pocket queens. Jaka flopped two pair and held, and just like that, he was back to even.
Samual wouldn't be denied, however, and he quickly re-established the lead after pulling off a savage triple-barrel bluff with queen-high. With escalating blinds forcing the action, Jaka decided to make a stand with ace-six suited facing a preflop three-bet shove from Samaul, who held king-queen. Despite getting it in as a slight favorite, Samual flopped two pair, and Jaka was unable to catch up, securing Samual's victory.
