A lightning fast final table of Event #36: $800 8-Handed No-Limit Hold'em Deepstack came to a close after only four hours of play, with Timur Margolin overcoming Agharazi Babayev to take down his third bracelet.
The Israel native was congratulated by a rail of friends and fellow players. After what felt like a dominant run on the final table, he pocketed $342,551 for first place and, of course, a coveted WSOP bracelet to add to his collection.
Crushing last year’s impressive numbers, the event was another record-breaker, with a turnout of 4,278 entries, which generated a prize pool of $3,011,712.
Final Table Payouts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Timur Margolin | Israel | $342,551 |
| 2 | Agharazi Babayev | Azerbaijan | $228,321 |
| 3 | Michael Allen | United Kingdom | $168,276 |
| 4 | Adam Hendrix | United States | $125,074 |
| 5 | Joseph Couden | United States | $93,758 |
| 6 | Francisco Riosvallejo | Mexico | $70,890 |
| 7 | Cole Uvila | United States | $54,066 |
| 8 | Vaughan Machado | United States | $41,597 |
| 9 | Jeremy Chen | Taiwan | $32,288 |
With the inclusion of an unexpected Day 3, Margolin found himself starting the day as the chip leader. However, his early aggression hindered his stack as he failed to win many pots throughout the first 45 minutes of play. His prior experience with final tables in the WSOP and continued aggression helped him to climb back and soar through the remaining field looking unstoppable along the way.
Winner’s Reaction
Margolin was quick to thank his family for their support, and said he was looking forward to playing more at the Series.
"I wanna thank my wife and kids for being so supportive of my decision to travel and play poker," Margolin told PokerNews. "To live a family life and grind tournaments is not an easy lifestyle to manage.
"If it wasn't for my wife's support, I would be playing the Series in the first place."
Compared to his previous bracelet wins, Margolin said that this tournament went quicker than expected.
"It just led to more action and short-stack play," he told PokerNews.
Margolin shared that a big win with ace-queen suited was a calculated risk as he had a lot of fold equity against the similar sized stacks.
“This allowed me to regain momentum and apply maximum ICM pressure on the shorter stack players and expand my chip lead exponentially.” Margolin added.
Final Day Action
Margolin already held two WSOP bracelets and his prior experience in WSOP events showed. Also among the final table were 25k Fantasy Draft picks Adam Hendrix and Joseph Couden.
Jeremy Chen was the first to fall as Babayev chipped up to a healthy third place stack.
Margolin then eliminated Vaughan Machado in a battle of the blinds to hold nearly double the stack of his nearest opponent.
Players began dropping left and right while Margolin continued to assert maximum pressure. Cole Uvila and Francisco Riosvallejo fell in rapid succession to Margolin who now sat with sixty percent of the chips in play.
Both Couden and Hendrix found themselves with most of their stack committed due to the increased blinds. Couden lost his flip, while Hendrix made a double with the worst starting hand in poker.
Hendrix soon fell to Babayev as both he and Michael Allen both battled to ladder up. It was the former who achieved that as Allen was eliminated soon after.
Finally, Margolin’s overwhelming chip lead was too much to overcome over the heads-up contest, as Babayev finished as the runner up.
This ends PokerNews coverage of this event, but be sure to stay tuned as we bring you all the action for the rest of the World Series of Poker.
