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Ran Koller, from Israel, has swept aside his 2,777 opponents to claim victory in the WSOP Event #33: $800 Eight-Handed No Limit Hold'em Deep Stack. The youngster takes home a $269,478 prize and his first WSOP gold bracelet.
Coincidence?
In an extraordinary coincidence, the final two players left in the event were both called Ran and from Israel. In fact, when the final table was set it was Ran Ilani who was leading the way while Koller languished behind in seventh place.Ilani fought hard but in the end Koller took advantage of every edge he could find, and it was an extraordinary hand that finally ended the day. Both players were holding trash—53 and 72—the worst hands in Texas Hold’em.
As it was, the flop came down A42 and, despite turning a flush draw, Ilani got no further help and it was all over.
Koller said afterwards: “It’s amazing. I do not even have the words for it. It was surreal. I am here until the end of the series and I am going to play some more events.”
Final results:
| 1 | Ran Koller | $269,478 |
| 2 | Ran Ilani | $166,552 |
| 3 | Florian Guimond | $124,671 |
| 4 | Oleg Titov | $94,028 |
| 5 | Kris Steinbach | $71,457 |
| 6 | Alex Outhred | $54,722 |
| 7 | Jorge Hou | $42,231 |
| 8 | Donald Maloney | $32,845 |
