Sam Soverel bags WSOP Online Gold and $393,516

High stakes reg Sam Soverel added a second WSOP gold bracelet to his poker CV, finishing off the hybrid $5300 buy-in Online High Roller Championship with a live heads-up win.

Soverel, under the nickname “ApesSonIMHO”, was one of 408 entries (304 unique and 104 rebuys) who started out on WSOP.com, looking to bag a final table of six spot destined to be played out in the live arena.

First stop was to burst the money bubble, the top 60 set to double their money with a minimum cash of $11,628, and it was Josh “Nitbuster” Arieh who took the unfortunate bubble spot...

Joshua "Nitbuster" Arieh: A♣ 8♦
Leonard "DeathByFOMO" Maue: A♥ J♥

Flop: J♠ 9♦ 7♦
Turn: K♣
River: K♠

♠ ♣ ♥ ♦

Among those who made the paid spots but didn’t trouble the final table were 2015 WSOP Main Event champ Joe McKeehen (42nd for $11,832), six-time bracelet winner Shaun Deeb (35th for $12,036), Maria Ho (27th for $12,240), Erik “NW1time” Seidel (18th for $14,688), Matt “Berkey11­_S4Y” Berkey (10th for $27,246).

The final table was still a stacked affair, six players with six bracelets between them, but Ethan Yau wouldn’t be doubling his WSOP haul after losing the last of his chips to Gergely Kulcsar.

Kulcsar then disposed of Lu despite the latter holding pocket kings...

Lingkun Lu: K♠ K♦
Gergely Kulcsar: K♣ 10♣

Flop: Q♠ J♥ 8♠
Turn: A♥
River: 9♦

When Ponakovs’ treys fell prey to Soverel’s pocket 10s, and Kulcsar’s flopped set saw off Bronshtein in 3rd spot, it was heads-up for the title.

The Hungarian’s hopes were cut short when he first saw his big slick with flopped top pair losing a monster pot to an unlikely runner-runner full house.

The final hand came shortly afterwards...

...giving Soverel the title, his second WSOP gold, and $393,516.

Final results

“I much prefer live. I hadn’t played online since late-2020,” Soverel revealed after his victory. “Honestly, I don’t really trust the online environment. Live’s fun. It’s more social. It’s way better to me.”