Event #33: $1,500 Summer Solstice No-Limit Hold'em

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 second-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.  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 22^nd 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 41^st 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 5^th-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 33^rd official event on this year’s schedule.  This leaves 36 gold bracelet events still to be played at the 2016 WSOP.

Adrian Mateos raises to 225,000. Koray Aldemir calls.

The flop comes    . Aldemir checks. Mateos bets 250,000. Aldemir reraises to 715,000, Mateos shoves all in, and Aldemir insta-mucks.

Adrian Mateos goes all in on the button and Koray Aldemir calls in the big blind. Aldemir is at risk.

Mateos:   
Aldemir:   

The board runs out       and Aldemir doubles up.

Koray Aldemir - 2,200,000 (27 bb)
Adrian Mateos - 11,600,000 (145 bb)

Adrian Mateos raises to 200,000 on the button and Koray Aldemir calls.

The flop is     and both players check.

The turn is the  . Aldemir checks, Mateos bets 200,000, and Aldemir calls.

The river is the  . Both players check.

Aldemir:   
Mateos:   

Mateos has the best pair and takes down the pot.

Adrian Mateos - 11,000,000 (137 bb)
Koray Aldemir - 2,800,000 (35 bb)