Asi Moshe might want to think about hanging around the WSOP a little more often. His WSOP resume now features a first place and a fifth place with earnings more than $700,000. His return on investment is now November Nine like after cashing in for another six-figure score in only his fourth ever played WSOP event. The sample size may be small, but there is no arguing that he has accomplished an impressive feat. Moshe collected his first gold bracelet by outlasting a field of 2,396 entries in the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event and collecting the top payday of $582,321.
"Maybe the best feeling of my life," said Moshe when asked about how it feels to win a bracelet. "One of the very few dreams that I really wanted to accomplish but didn't think I really would, like going to the moon type of thing."
The 30-year-old from Tel Aviv, Israel plays online poker part time but now has the intention play a bit more live after another strong live performance. Moshe said he was aware of his lack of live poker experience and tried not read too much into tells and just focus on what he knew best about the game.
"I am mostly trying to eliminate the live elements of the game and just play poker." said Moshe.
As much as Moshe tried to eliminate the live aspect of the game, there was no ignoring his rail. Moshe had one of the loudest and most supportive rails of the summer. Moshe expressed his gratitude toward having the support of all of his friends in one of the most important times of his life. He said they helped kept him going, especially through long and grueling three-handed play.
At the end of Day 1, Moshe had a below average stack but was far from out of it. Day 2 was a big day for Moshe and he was able to turn his below average stack into a top ten stack by the end of the day. Moshe sailed through Day 3 watching his competitors get eliminated at a steady rate and by the time play got to three-handed he had found himself with the chip lead. Eliminations halted after David Jackson was eliminated in fourth place and Moshe found himself in a heated fight with Aaron Massey and Michael Ferrer for the bracelet. Three-handed play ended up lasting two and a half hours before Massey was knocked out by Moshe. Moshe was then able to go on and defeat Michael Ferrer in a brief heads up battle.
He outlasted a tough final table that included some tough circuit grinders and a former November Niner. Tim West (8th) recently won a WSOP Circuit event in New Orleans and has more than 20 WSOP cashes. Marc-Etienne McLaughlin (7th) was making his third WSOP final table appearance of his career. Last year McLaughlin finished sixth in the Main Event. Massey (3rd) has two WSOP Circuit rings as well as 32 circuit cashes.
The $1,500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em event played at the Rio in Las Vegas and generated a $3,234,600 prize pool. The top 243 finishers made the money. Some of the notables who cashed include Matt Salsberg (228th), Eric Baldwin (172nd), Angela Prada-Moed (96th), Brandon Cantu (56th) and Barny Boatman (53rd).
Here are the final table results from the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event:
1st: Asi Moshe - $582,321
2nd: Michael Ferrer- $361,2073rd: Aaron Massey - $255,2094th: David Jackson - $183,4985th: Bobby Poe - $133,6866th: Henrik Hecklen - $98,6877th: Marc-Etienne McLaughlin - $73,7818th: Tim West - $55,861
9th: Brian Kennedy - $42,826