After entering heads-up play with a 9:1 chip deficit, Liang completed the ultimate comeback story by defeating his opponent Duc Nguyen, in a back-and-forth battle. Liang navigated through an enormous field of 6,292 entries on his path to capture a majority of the $4,303,728 prize pool.
PokerNews caught up with Liang after the win to ask him how he was feeling after winning his first piece of gold. "It feels amazing. I've had a few close calls in the past. I've had a second place, a third place and a fifth place, so it feels good to finally break through."
When asked what the bracelet means to him, Liang explained, "It means a lot. It's one of those things that you dream about when you first start playing poker. And then coming so close in the past and not achieving it, it kind of makes you wonder if it's ever going to happen."
Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize (USD)
1
Michael Liang
United States
$777,777
2
Duc Nguyen
United States
$300,777
3
Rajesh Mehta
United States
$190,777
4
Manoj Batavia
United States
$141,777
5
Mitch Garshofsky
United States
$105,777
6
Jorge Postigo
Peru
$80,777
7
Lukas Hafner
Austria
$60,777
Day 3 Action
Only five players returned on the final day, all of whom were on the hunt for their first piece of WSOP hardware. The overwhelming chip leader entering the day was Nguyen, with 119,200,000, more than double that of Liang, who was second with 52,500,000.
Mitch Garshofsky was Nguyen's first victim of the day. The three-time WSOP circuit ring winner was down to just five big blinds and got it all in with ace-four versus Nguyen's ace-jack. Garshofsky couldn't find a four and was sent to the rail in fifth place.
Manoj Batavia
Nguyen continued his momentum early on when he got it all in against the short-stacked Manoj Batavia, who was in good shape to double up with his ace-ten against Nguyen's king-ten. That was until Nguyen spiked a king on the turn, eliminating Batavia in fourth place.
Nguyen didn't show any signs of slowing down when he knocked out Rajesh Mehta in third place shortly after. Mehta, who was short on chips, moved all in preflop with jack-six suited and was called by Nguyen, who had queen-ten. A queen came on the flop, and Mehta couldn't catch up with his backdoor draws.
Heads-Up Play
After having eliminated all three opponents to start the day, it appeared that it was going to be the Nguyen show, who entered heads-up action with nearly a 9:1 chip lead over Liang.
Liang wasn't ready to exit without a fight and found an early double up with (lucky) trip sevens, a fitting hand to begin his comeback story. From there, Nguyen and Liang traded small pots back and forth until Liang got his second double up of the match when his top pair held against Nguyen's open-ended straight draw.
Shortly after, Liang won a handful of small pots to propel himself back to even in the duel. He kept his foot on the pedal and eventually pulled ahead in the match in a three-bet pot where he put Nguyen to the test with an all-in bet on the turn.
Duc Nguyen
Liang continued to extend his lead, stringing together a number of hands where Nguyen was put in a tough spot. Nguyen fought back and found a double up with ace-six, besting Liang's ace-queen to stay alive in the match. Nguyen then doubled up again later on, this time with pocket queens against Liang's ace-three.
Nguyen's rebound was short-lived, and he ultimately ran into the two-pair of Liang on the final hand of the tournament. All of the money went in on the turn and Nguyen saw the bad news that his pocket jacks had been cracked. Nguyen couldn't find the two-outer on the river and his impressive tournament run came to an end, finishing in second place.
Despite entering heads-up play with a huge chip deficit, Liang relayed to PokerNews that he never counted himself out. "I feel confident in my heads-up game, so I know that anything can happen. I've been heads-up in a few different scenarios and you never really know, there's so much variance."
When asked about his plans for after the WSOP now that it's wrapping up, Liang mentioned, "I'm going to go to California and just relax and take a few weeks off."
