ADRIAN MATEOS WINS $1,500 BUY-IN “SUMMER SOLSTICE” NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM EVENT
21-year-old Spaniard collects $409,171 top prize in Event #33
2013 WSOP Europe Main Event champ shines in Las Vegas summer heat
Mateos joins fellow countryman Carlos Mortensen with two WSOP gold bracelet wins
1,840-player field jams the 2016 WSOP
Koray Aldemir, from Austria, finishes as runner up
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: Adrian Mateos
Birthplace: Madrid, Spain
Age: 21
Current Residence: Madrid, Spain
Marital Status: Single
Children: None
Profession: Professional Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 5
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 2
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 2
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 1st (2013)
Total WSOP Earnings: $1,836,922
Personal Facts: Has won WSOP gold bracelets on two continents
Winner Quote:
“My goal is to win. I want to win whenever I play. However, sometimes that doesn’t happen. If I can’t win, then I want to learn something and improve as a player. That can be just as important for me.”
Adrian Mateos has now won two WSOP gold bracelets on two continents.
The 21-year-old poker pro from Madrid, Spain just won the $1,500 buy-in Summer Solstice No-Limit Hold’em tournament, which was played over five days and four nights. The lengthy marathon just concluded on the ESPN main stage at the Rio in Las Vegas.
The Summer Solstice was a new offering on this year’s schedule. It was designed to take advantage of the dates which corresponded to the longest day of the year and also give players lots of extra daylight in the manner of time to play their way into the money and onto the final table. Instead of standard levels of play, the tournament had 90-minute levels, which made the tournament run much longer than usual. In fact, it took five days to complete this event rather than the normal three days.
For Mateos, the longer wait was well worth it. He collected $409,171 in prize money, making this the third-biggest win of his career. In 2013, Mateos won the WSOP Europe Main Event Championship, which was played on the outskirts of Paris, France. For that victory, Mateos collected one-million euros. He also won a European Poker Tour Grand Final, in Monaco. This marked his fifth time to cash in a WSOP event. Most remarkable – he’s now earned $1,836,922 just a week before his 22nd birthday.
“It feels very good to win. It’s especially important for me to win one here in Las Vegas,” Mateos said in a post-tournament interview. “It’s like a dream come true to play in this tournament because I have been wanting to do this in Las Vegas for a long time.”
Mateos won his latest victory by coming out on top at a final table which included another tough lineup of adversaries. The final moment of triumph came when Mateos scooped the final pot of the tournament against Koray Aldemir, from Vienna, Austria who finished as the runner up. Second place paid $252,805.
With this victory, Mateos is one of only three players from Spain who hold WSOP titles. The other two are Carlos Mortensen and Cesar Garcia. Mateos joins Mortensen, who won the 2001 world championship as a two-time winner. He’s also the second Spanish winner this year, following Garcia’s victory two weeks earlier.
“Carlos and Cesar – they are such great players,” Mateos said. “I had Cesar here with me and I know he was cheering for me also. So, to have them and be part of them for Spain is very thrilling for me.”
This tourney attracted 1,840 entrants which created a prize pool totaling $2,484,000. The top 276 finishers collected prize money.
Aside from the winner, here’s a brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table:
Second Place: Koray Aldemir, from Vienna, Austria finished as the runner up. He earned $252,805. Aldemir has now cashed nine times at the WSOP, including six times already this year.
Third Place: Alessandro Borsa, from Milan, Italy might have won this event had the biggest and loudest rail been at stake. However, his throng of Italians couldn’t change the deck nor alter Borsa’s fate at the third-place finisher. Borsa made quite a splash in his first WSOP time to cash, which paid $182,835.
Fourth Place: Ralph Wong, from West Chester, PA enjoyed his deepest run and highest payout to date with his fourth-place finishing in this event. Wong pocketed $133,588.
Fifth Place: Jon Turner, from Henderson, NV took fifth place. He cashed for the 41st time at the WSOP. Turner also crosses the $1 million mark in earnings with this $98,617 payout. This marked his ninth time to make it to a final table. Interestingly, he’s now finished in 5th-place four times.
Sixth Place: Jackson White, from Houston, TX came in sixth. He now has eight cashes at the series. This high finish paid $73,563.
Seventh Place: Ronald McGinnity, from Kingston, MA cashed in seventh place. He’s demonstrated a talent for going deep in events with huge fields, judging by past in-the-money finishes in the 2013 and 2015 WSOP Main Events, as well as in last year’s Colossus, in addition to two Millionaire Maker tournaments. This time, he raked in $55,455 in prize money.
Eighth Place: Stephen Ladowsky, from Toronto, ON (Canada) now has 24 cashes at the WSOP after this nice run. He collected $42,252
Ninth Place: David Tovar, from Cardiff, Wales (UK) cashed for the third time at this year’s series. He collected $32,540.
This was the 33rd official event on this year’s schedule. This leaves 36 gold bracelet events still to be played at the 2016 WSOP.
OTHER NOTABLE IN-THE MONEY FINISHERS:
Poker pro Chris Moorman, from Benfleet, UK cashed in 13th place.
Kathy Liebert, a gold bracelet winner, finished in 17th place.
Michael Banducci, a gold bracelet winner, came in 21st.
Roland Israelashvili, a four-time WSOP gold ring winner, cashed for the 58th time. He now ranks second all-time behind Tony Cousineau as the player with the most in-the-money finishes without a gold bracelet victory.
“Gentleman” John Gale, a two-time gold bracelet winner finished in 57th place.
Matt Gianetti, who came in fourth in the 2011 WSOP Main Event Championship, took 76th place.
Dan Kelly, a two-time gold bracelet winner, finished 94th.
Other notable players who cashed included – Scott Davies, Shannon Shorr, and Konstantin Puchkov.
FUN FACTS:
The ages of participants ranged from 21 to 86. The eldest player in the field was Samuel Kobrinsky. The average age of participants was 39 years.
The breakdown of player nationalities for this event was 1,312 Americans and 528 players from elsewhere. The top five nations represented was the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Brazil, and Germany.
The breakdown of participants by gender was 1,727 males and 113 females – 94 percent to 6 percent.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s official final results (listing all players who finished in-the-money), please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/tournaments/results.asp?grid=1232&tid=14933
For Adrian Mateos’ official player profile page, please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=179494
For the live reporting logs for this event, please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=1232&tid=14933
To access licensed images from this all other 2016 WSOP gold bracelet events, please visit:
www.pokerphotoarchive.com
Written by Nolan Dalla (WSOP Media Staff)