ABE MOSSERI CLAIMS $10,000 OMAHA HI-LO CHAMPIONSHIP GOLD

LAS VEGAS (7 June 2017) – Abe Mosseri has triumphed in the 2017 World Series of Poker Event #9, $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo Championship. Mosseri's win was worth $388,795 in addition to his second career gold bracelet.

Mosseri triumphed over a star-laden final table that included seven former bracelet winners, led by six-time winner Daniel Negreanu. Negreanu finished as the runner-up in this event, collecting $240,290 for his deep run.

Third place went to Israel-born Yarron Bendor, who cashed for $166,895. Bendor more than doubled his career WSOP winnings with his showing here.

Mosseri dominated the middle stages of this event, with his strong Day 2 push giving him the lead entering Day 3. He negotiated his was to the final three with relative ease, then topped his last challengers, Negreanu and Bendor, to win gold. Mosseri extended his career WSOP earnings total to $1,752,652 with the win.

The extended three-way battle between Negreanu, Mosseri and Bendor, known as “Y.B.” at the tables, sent this $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo tourney to an extra Day 4 for the second straight year. Each of the three began their late Day 3 battle with over two million chips, following Fabrice Soulier's exit in fourth. The ensuing clash continued for over six hours before Bendor's elimination, which came during an extra level of action requested by the players. Mosseri and Negreanu dueled on but were unable to determine the winner before the night's mandated play stoppage.

However, Mosseri quickly closed out the win when play resumed on Wednesday, claiming the bracelet on just the fourth hand of the day. It was a marked contrast to the seesaw war that consumed most of Day 3. As Mosseri noted, "Last night was a lot more of the back-and-forth stuff going on; today was just my time, I guess."

Mosseri held a healthy lead as Day 3 action in the highest-buy-in Omaha hi-lo event on the WSOP's schedule began. Seventeen players were still in the running, including 12 former bracelet winners, led by Negreanu with six bracelets, and Max Pescatori and Mike Matusow with four each.

Seven of those previous winners made the official final table after eight other eliminations in the Day 3's first two-plus hours. Matusow entered the day as the shortest remaining stack, but tripled up in the day's first hand and fended off elimination long enough to make it to eighth. Other bracelet winners making the final but falling short of another win were Soulier, Ray Dehkharghani, Anthony Zinno, and John Monnette.

Mosseri managed to keep his stack reasonably healthy throughout the Day 3 battle, even though he, like Negreanu and Bendor, took a turn as the short stack. "I was close one time [to being out]. I had under a million [chips] one hand, and I had K-9-6-5 and I flopped a straight. Without that hand I probably would not have won."

Mosseri had good words for his final two foes. "They were both really good players," he said, "but the hands broke my way today."  Regarding Bendor, who faced an early-Wednesday flight as well, Mosseri added, "He tried his hardest; he put up a very good fight.

The former backgammon and gin-rummy player added his triumph here to his earlier win, which came back in 2009 in a $2,500, 2-7 lowball triple-draw event. Mosseri's $388,795 payday was, by a narrow margin, the second-largest of his WSOP career. Mosseri won $402,695 with a fourth-place showing in the 2014 WSOP's Poker Players Championship.

Negreanu's runner-up showing here was his second of the 2017 series, along with that in the recent $10,000 Tag Team Championship.

This event was the second $10,000 championship on the WSOP's summer slate, drawing in many of the world's best in the split-pot (eight or lower) format. The event's total prize pool was $506,250. Thirty-four players cashed in the event, out of 154 total entrants.

JEWELRY CHEST:

Add Abe Mosseri's second gold to the gaudy 16 bracelets already owned by the nine players making the final. Only two of this event's finalists lacked a previous win – third-place Yarron Bendor and fifth-place finisher Ilya Dyment. Five more former bracelet winners made it to Day 3 but fell short of the final, led by Max Pescatori and his four wins. Christopher Vitch, David 'ODB' Baker, Owais Ahmed, and Anthony Zinno, all with a single bracelet each, also made the final 17.

OTHER NOTABLES:

Day 3's final 19 players also included Dan Shak and Matt Woodward, while former bracelet winners Gary Benson and Randy Ohel also made the final 20.

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Final Table Payouts (earned POY points in parentheses):