June 6, 2019 (Las Vegas) -Yuval Bronshtein made his first World Series of Poker final table in 2007. The event was the $2,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em and he finished in third place for $109,018. Shortly before he was eliminated, he flopped top pair against Greg Hopkins, the eventual winner. Hopkins rivered an ace to leave Bronshtein short. That river card could have given Bronshtein a huge chip lead heads up, but instead he was eliminated shortly after.
That was his first WSOP cash. Now, 53 cashes later at his tenth final table, Bronshtein is a WSOP champion.
“It feels amazing. It’s exactly what I thought it would be like. I’m not surprised I’ve always felt I could win one of these tournaments. Glad to finally wrap one up, I’m definitely really happy about it. This has been a really big goal of mine since I started playing poker. It’s been my number one goal.”
He won the $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 for $96,278 after beating a field of 296 players. This win puts Bronshtein at $1,124,862 in career WSOP winnings.
When the final day of the event started, Bronshtein was fourth in chips. Ajay Chabra, who entered the day as the chip leader, knocked out all but one player before he took a two-to-one chip lead into the heads up. Bronshtein was not phased and overcame the deficit to beat Chabra and claim his first WSOP bracelet.
“Ajay is a great player. I got to play with him yesterday and I couldn’t beat him in a pot. I had a feeling he was going to go deep in this tournament, be one of the last three at least. However, I have a lot of experience playing heads up, not particularly in this game, I only play this game once a year, but I’m very good at heads up.”
Bronshtein’s ability to read his opponent and his heads-up prowess, gave him the confidence to overcome the large chip deficit and become a WSOP champion.
“I never lose confidence in myself. When I had three-hundred or four-hundred thousand chips, that’s what I started the final table with.”
Bronshtein says he’s decided he wanted to take his life in a new direction, after a difficult year. He was injured in a car accident among other things he didn’t specify. As a result, he recently took a job as a financial advisor, which he starts in September.
“I’ve made some changes in my life which have really benefited me and helped my mentality. I’m very much at peace right now. All the bad things that have happened to me over the last year, I was able to overcome them. I feel like they all made me stronger, and helped me win this bracelet, and helped me be who I am today.”
Here is a look at the final table payouts. For a list of the full results, click here.
1) Yuval Bronshtein ($96,278)
2) Ajay Chabra ($59,491)
3) Jerry Wong ($39,986)
4) Steven Tabb ($27,477)
5) Michael Sortino ($19,313)
6) Bjorn Geissert ($13,892)