2024 WSOP Paradise Champion Spotlight: Jeffrey Hakim
For years, Jeffrey Hakim chased the dream of winning a WSOP bracelet, a dream that lingered even as life took him away from the full-time poker grind.
Last year, at WSOP Paradise, that dream finally came true when Hakim triumphed in the $2,500 Mini Main Event, outlasting a massive 2,031-player field to capture the $575,050 top prize and his first career bracelet.
Event #1: $2,500 Mini Main Event Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeffrey Hakim | United States | $575,050 |
| 2 | Alina Paliahoshka | Belarus | $445,400 |
| 3 | Andrei Piatrushchanka | Belarus | $344,000 |
| 4 | Viktor Ustimov | Russian Federation | $261,500 |
| 5 | Ryan Gebow | United States | $202,100 |
| 6 | Mathew Frankland | United Kingdom | $152,300 |
| 7 | Paul Newey | United Kingdom | $120,600 |
| 8 | Matas Cimbolas | Lithuania | $91,020 |
| 9 | Aram Oganyan | United States | $70,135 |
| 10 | Dong Chen | China | $51,080 |
Hakim led wire-to-wire for much of the final day, before defeating Belarus’s Alina Paliahoshka heads-up, while her partner Andrei Piatrushchanka finished third — a remarkable back-to-back finish for the couple.
“This victory is for the kid inside me,” Hakim said afterwards. “I dedicated so much time and effort to this in my twenties, so to accomplish it now feels like a sense of vindication.
“It’s the bracelet [that matters]. That’s what I’ll remember after all these years.”