2015 WSOP Event 30

Thursday June 18,2015 : ARGENTINA GETS ITS FIRST WORLD SERIES OF POKER BRACELET
 
Proud Ivan wins the NLHE event to claim his nation's first.
 
23-year-old poker pro Ivan Luca from Argentina was a proud man Wednesday, claiming his own and his nation's first ever World Series of Poker winner's bracelet and the $353,391 main prize in Event 30 – a $1,000 buy-in NLHE competition for which 2,150 players registered.
 
The $1.93 million prize pool enabled 216 survivors to cash, with the main spoils going to the final table – Luca's fifth in WSOP events. Along the way he survived whilst top names like Antonio Esfandiari, Bertrand Grospellier, Jason Koon and Chris Moorman cashed but failed to make the final nine seats.
 
Four days of action were required before Luca and Czech professional Artur Rudziankov faced off in the heads up, with Luca very strongly positioned thanks to a substantial chip lead. However, as is so often the case in the game, his opponent staged a huge fightback and was even able at several points to take control before Luca could ultimately regain and hold supremacy and finally claim the victory after two torrid hours.
 
The win brings Luca's live tournament career earnings to $1.2 million.
 
Final table cashes looked like this:
 
Artur Rudziankov  $219,976 
Travis Case  $152,907 
Pierre Horaud  $110,123
Bruce Angeski  $80,485 
David Chase  $59,538 
Viliyan Petleshkov  $44,622 
Kai Yand  $33,868  
Omri Sabach  $26,008