KEITH TILSTON DEFEATS DANIEL NEGREANU TO WIN FIRST BRACELET IN $100,000 HIGH ROLLER

July 13, 2019 (Las Vegas) - Keith Tilston is the winner of the $100,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller. He wins his first World Series of Poker bracelet and $2,792,406.


Tilston topped a field of 99 players to claim the high roller title. As is the case with many of the higher buyin events, this field was absolutely stacked. The final six players had 15 bracelets between them, and Keith Tilston was the only player without one.


Tilston is no stranger to the high roller fields and claimed his first bracelet after topping a final table filled with some of the world’s best players.


“I do play a lot of high roller events and I feel good to know I can at least hang with these guys. Obviously there’s a lot of luck in each individual tournament and you gotta run well. I certainly don’t claim to be as good as a lot of these guys, but it feels good I can at least hang with them.”


Tilston has been around poker for a while. He has worked his way up from a mostly professional player, to a player who plays high stakes and isn’t as much of a grinder as he has been in the past. Winning a bracelet at this point in his poker career means a little more to him than it might have if he had one a few years ago.


“I played professionally for five or six years, probably back then I wouldn’t have cared as much. I was playing more for the money, but I feel like now, it’s something I can always look back on and say I had a bracelet,” he said.


When Tilston was heads up against Daniel Negreanu a large portion, if not all the rail was their in support of Negreanu. Tilston ended up being yet another player to stall Negreanu’s bracelet count at six.


This was Negreanu’s second runner-up finish this summer and when he was eliminated by a jack on the river, which gave Tilston the title, Negreanu said, “I think I have the record for more second-place finishes.”


Tilston could definitely appreciate the fan sentiment and even though he defeated Negreanu, he was very aware of his impact on the poker community.


“I told him I would have been rooting for him too if I wasn’t in it. It just is it what is, people want to see Daniel win.”


It was not to be this time for Negreanu and Tilston added a bit of jewelry and almost doubled his career tournament winnings with a single river card. He now has $6,417,409 in career winnings.


The final six returned today at noon with Tilston leading the way. Six-time bracelet winner, Daniel Negreanu was the short stack.


Negreanu doubled through Brandon Adams about thirty minutes into the restart and bought himself a little bit more room to maneuver. Adams just won his first bracelet this summer in the $3,200 Online High Roller event.


Dominik Nitsche shoved the best hand from the small blind and Igor Kurganov called from the big blind, putting Nitsche at risk. Nitsche had the best of it, but Kurganov caught a queen on the river to win the hand and eliminate Nitsche.


The next hand, Kugranov had another player all-in and at risk. This time it was Adams. Kugranov won that hand and quickly culled the field from six to four. Nick Schulman was the chip leader, but Kurganov overtook him with the back-to-back eliminations.


Adams finished in fifth place at his third final table of the summer. He now has $2,310,817 in WSOP career tournament winnings on 20 cashes.


Kurganov was the next to go, finishing in fourth place and taking home $840,183. Kurganov won his first bracelet in 2017 with his girlfriend Liv Boeree in the $10,000 Tag Team Championship and this was his third final table appearance.


With this cash, he crosses the $1.5-million mark in career WSOP winnings and $18-million in career tournament winnings. 


Now it was Tilston who held the lead with two multiple-bracelet winners between him and his first WSOP gold bracelet. Tilston is no stranger to the high roller streets, but has only made one final table at the WSOP and that was earlier this series in the Final Fifty -- a $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament that Adams also final tabled.


It was the three-time bracelet winner Schulman falling in third place. Negreanu eliminated Schulman to get heads up for the second time this summer. It was also his fourth final table of the year, and Kid Poker was looking to bring home bracelet number seven.


Standing in his way, Tilston who had already surpassed his best-ever WSOP finish.


Negreanu had a slight lead at the start of heads up play, but quickly got out to an almost three-to-one chip lead about ten hands in.


Things turned in Tilston’s favor when he got all in on the turn with trips against Negreanu’s top pair. Tilston was now in the lead, he managed to get Negreanu all in again, this time coming from behind to eliminate the six-time bracelet winner and claim his first.


Final table payouts: (Click here for the complete list of results)

1) Keith Tilston ($2,792,406)

2) Daniel Negreanu ($1,725,838)

3) Nick Schulman ($1,187,802)

4) Igor Kurganov ($840,183)

5) Brandon Adams ($611,258)

6) Dominik Nitsche ($457,772)

7) Sergi Reixach ($353,202)

8) Christoph Vogelsang ($281,025)