Amateur Poker Player Turns 500 into 60,000 and a WSOP Bracelet

The penultimate gold bracelet of the 2023 World Series of Poker Europe has been awarded at King’s Resort in Rozvadov. After almost 11 hours of play, Maurice Nass earned his first live tournament victory defeating Traian Stanciu heads up to take down the top prize of 60,000 in Event #15: 550 NLH Closer. The win came after a gruelling three-handed battle that saw both finalists hold the short stack and double multiple times, before settling the tournament in the late hours of the night.

Nass conquered a field of 628 entries over the opening two flights, taking the largest piece of the 298,300 prize pool. He becomes the second straight bracelet winner from Germany, following Bernd Gleissners triumph in Event #14: 1,000 No-Limit Holdem Turbo Freezeout.

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Winners Reaction

Amazingly, this was Nass’ only appearance at the WSOP Europe, and the amateur player made the most if his one shot. I had no time because I have a job, no time to play other tournaments" Nass told PokerNews after his victory. “I decided to play The Closer because Im very good in closer tournaments. Thats why I stayed here to play this tournament, with one bullet, and I won!

As he reflected on the win, his thoughts were very clear on what the title means. Its very amazing to win a tournament but it changes nothing in my life, and thats a good thing” Nass explained. “Im not a professional poker player, I have a job. It means very much to win a trophy like this, I always wanted a bracelet. I was sure I would someday win a bracelet, now its earlier than I thought, but Im very, very happy.

Event #15: 550 NLH Closer Final Table Results

Place	Winner	Country	Prize
1	Maurice Nass	Germany	60,000
2	Traian Stanciu	Romania	36,600
3	Duc Tuan Tran	Vietnam	25,900
4	Sefora Pop	Romania	18,600
5	Anthony Mahaut	France	13,600
6	Bogdan Tilica	Romania	10,050
7	Theodoor Woolschot	Netherlands	7,550
8	Roland Israelashvili	United States	5,750

Day 2 Action

The final 61 players to find a bag returned to action, having already locked up 1,070. The day began at a furious pace, as the first four half-hour levels of play saw 35 players hit the rail. Among the notables to bow out early was Barny Boatman, who hit the rail as the second elimination of the day (60th - 1,070). He was soon joined on the sidelines by fellow WSOP bracelet winners Ilija Savevski (50th - 1,200) and Jared Strauss (48th - 1,200).

One of the more prominent patterns of the day was players struggling against ace-queen. This was especially true of Johan De Clercq (17th - 2,275) who was sent out with ace-king to get the field down to two tables

Other notable names to see their run cut short included Vlad Darie (14th - 2,275) and Emil Bise (13th - 2,800). Andrei Spataru was knocked out in tenth place for 3,500, and his elimination left the unofficial final table of nine.

Final Table Action

After posing for photos, the field was cut down by one more. Andrzej Jedryczka was propelled to a big stack early in the day with a double knockout, but was the first to fall at the unofficial final table after running into Duc Tuan Trans pocket aces to finish in ninth for 4,474.

Roland Israelashvili earned his fifth cash of the series with a third final table appearance, but was unable to build any more momentum and fell in eighth. Next to hit the rail was Theodoor Woolschot, who made a move with pocket eights but could not match Trans jacks to finish in seventh place.

Another trio of deep runs came to an end in the span of the next 15 minutes. Bogdan Tilica lost his short stack to finish sixth, followed by Anthony Mahaut in fifth and Sefora Pop just missing the podium with a fourth-place result.

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Three-Handed Play

After the flurry of knockouts, the final three combatants settled in for what would be a four-hour grind. Nass entered three-handed play as the shortest stack, but doubled twice quickly to vault back into contention.

Unbelievably, that was followed by Stanciu doubling his short stack four times in a row, all through Nass. Meanwhile, Day 1b chip leader Tran seemed in control for most of the final table until a string of back-to-back hands sealed his fate. Tran lost a big pot to Stanciu for the lead, and was knocked out on the next hand against Nass.

From there, Nass took a big early lead in heads up play only to see Stanciu double from ten big blinds when both players made a full house. Nass was able to grind the chips back, eventually taking down the title with just over 30 big blinds left in play.

I really dont know what to say, its so amazing” said Nass after the win. “I started the day quite short, I got a roller coaster, and after all I think when we were three left, I was sure that I will win this tournament.” Despite the ups and downs over the course of three-handed play, his mindset was proven right. Now Hass can proudly call himself a WSOP bracelet winner.

2023 WSOP Europe Winnner

Event	Entries	Winner	Prize
Event #1: 350 NLH Opener	3,503	Lukas Pazma	110,000
Event #2: 550 Pot Limit Omaha 8-max	719	Omar Eljach	65,900
Event #3: 1,350 Mini Main Event	1,729	Sokratis Linaras	310,350
Event #4: 2,000 Pot Limit Omaha	206	Hokyiu ee	91,183
Event #5: 550 NLH Colossus	3,436	Ermanno Di Nicola	200,000
Event #6: 5,000 Pot Limit Omaha	202	Wing Po Liu	230,000
Event #7: 1,650 NLH 6-Max	495	Tobias Peters	143,100
Event #8: 25,000 NLH GGMillion	89	Daniel Dvoress	600,000
Event #9: 1,100 NLH Mystery Bounty	803	Tobias Garp	92,300
Event #10: 2,000 8-Game Mix	97	Dainius Antanaitis	47,770
Event #11: 1,100 NLH Turbo Bounty Hunter	570	Joakim Andersson	70,000
Event #12: 50,000 NLH Diamond High Roller	37	Santhosh Suvarna	650,000
Event #14: 1,000 No-Limit Holdem Turbo Freezeout	182	Bernd Gleissner	46,700
Event #15: 550 NLH Closer	628	Maurice Nass	60,000

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