New Jersey’s Raymond ‘avant9201’ Avant eliminated five players in 25 minutes early Friday morning to secure his maiden WSOP gold bracelet for $94K and an additional $1,700 in bounties. The relatively unknown Avant triumphed over 1,451 other players to win #Event 23 ($500 NLHE Knockout Freezeout).

Despite coming onto the final table with a significant chip stack, WSOP bracelet and Circuit ring winner Dan ‘PepperPrince’ Zack was the first to be felted and eliminated in 9th place.

Zack, who has over $1million in career live earnings, shipped his 463,996 stack pre-flop and was first called by Avant from the small blind. Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva, who has three WSOP bracelets himself, re-shoved for 2,385,062 which caused Avant to make the fold. Zack’s was behind De Silva’s and a clean run out of sent Zack packing.

In a button versus Big Blind battle 15 minutes later, Scott ‘intheblack14’ Epstein raised all in for 13,648,668 with after the action folded around to him on the button. ‘Mikeob1’ called off his 2,382,502 stack with . The flop came and the on the turn gave ‘Mikeob1’ the nut flush draw but paired the board on the river, busting ‘Mikeob1’ in 8th place.

Shortly after the break, the third final table fatality of the day started off with ‘dogmai’ in middle position with raising all in for 3,615,011. Avant isolated from the cutoff with and was a 4:1 favorite heading to the flop. ‘dogmai’ caught one of his two immediate outs on the flop, the at risk player made a full house with a on turn but a disastrous on river gave Avant the bigger boat and sunk ‘dogmai’s’ battleship.

Seven minutes later Avant got his second final table elimination of the day. Short stack ‘kings702’ picked up in the cutoff and moved all-in for his tournament life. Avant now flush with a chip stack of around 10 million called the shove with . Despite ‘kings702’ pair of nines looking in good shape, the flop meant he needed a miracle to evade elimination. Unfortunately, lady luck did not make an appearance as the turn and the river ended any hopes of etching his name in the WSOP history books.

Just five hands later Jun ‘YESUM1987’ Kim jammed his stack from the button for 1,038,184 and Avant looking to bust a third consecutive player called from the big blind. Kim was ahead with as Avant turned over and remained the favourite on the . The turn brought in a flush draw for Avant but it was the on the river which sent Kim to the rail for fifth.

The action did not let up, just two minutes later short stack Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva raised all in for 647,864 from the small blind with and was called by chip leader Scott ‘intheblack14’ Epstein with . De Silva liked the flop but the turn moved Epstein ahead, De Silva, a three-time bracelet winner, did not improve on the river and finished in fourth place for just shy of $30K.

Remarkably there was another quick elimination coming just another two minutes later. Avant continued his final table demolition when Ryan ‘Im.sorry’ Torgersen open-jammed from the small blind for 3,674,257 and Avant snap-called from the big blind.

• Avant:
• Torgersen:

Torgersen made a pair on the flop but Avant continued to run good also making his set as the flop came . The turn meant Torgersen was drawing dead and the inconsequential completed the board and ended Torgersen’s chances of picking up a second 2020 WSOP online win.

The final two players started heads up with even stacks of around 17.5 million chips but it was all over seven minutes later. Avant, who was the dominant chip stack coming into the final hand, moved all in with for 31,028,466 and Epstein called off his remaining 5,201,534 stack with .

Avant took the lead and had one hand on a gold bracelet as he paired his on the flop, Epstein then improved to seven outs on the turn with the but could not make his straight on the river giving Avant the victory.

Final Table Payouts

1. Raymond ‘avant9201’ Avant – $93,775.96
2. Scott ‘intheblack14’ Epstein – $58,074.19
3. Ryan ‘Im.sorry’ Torgersen – $41,242.60
4. Upeshka ‘gomezhamburg’ De Silva – $29,690.49
5. Byung Jun ‘YESUM1987’ Kim – $21,692.88
6. ‘kings702’ – $15,995.23
7. ‘dogmai’ – $12,022.56
8. ‘Mikeob81’ – $9,095.32
9. Dan ‘PepperPrince’ Zack – $7,004.44

Faces in the Crowd

Notable names who cashed #Event 23 but fell short of making the final table were WSOP Main Event winner Greg ‘FossilMan’ Raymer (191st – $574.99), Allen ‘Acnyc719’ Chang (84th – $940.89). Daniel Negreanu continued his fine form cashing in another WSOP event finishing in 25th place for $2,770. Chris Moorman finished in 36th place for a $2,247.69 payday. The unfortunate final table bubble boy was Anthony ‘fresshh429’ Conte who’s 10th place finish scored him a $5,436 payday.