Hani Awad, a taxi cab company owner in Vegas, won the fiercely fought battle of Event #36: $2500 Mixed Omaha/Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better—winning the first gold bracelet of his career and $213,186 in prize money.
Dedicating his win to his 93 year old mother who still lives in his birth place of Nazareth, Israel, Awad said: “I promised her I was going to win it for her. It was my dream to win this, and it means the world…I don’t even care about the money. I just wanted to win the
gold bracelet.”
Awad finished second in this same event last year, losing heads up to Konstantin Masiak from Russia.
This time around Awad fought out the final hands against the well known poker pro and GPL Paris Aviator Fabrice Soulier making this the 31st cash of his WSOP career and taking home $131,762.
Jason Mercier finished in 11th place before entering two more tournaments that day.
RECAP: Event #35: $5000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em
It was a European affair over in Event #35 as Michael Gathy from Belgium, won his gold bracelet and $560,843 in prize money against Adrien Allain from France who finished as runner up. This makes Gathy a three time gold bracelet winner having previously won bracelets in 2012 and 2013.
Events to watch today
Event #33: $1500 Summer Solstice No-Limit Hold’em finishes today as the event rolls into its fifth and final day of play. Koray Aldemir goes in as chip leader with 7,515,000 and Adrian Mateos is not far behind with 6,280,000.
Event #37: $1500 Pot-Limit Omaha also rounds up today with sixteen players remaining to battle it out for the $212,128 first place prize. Tommy Le is currently leading the pack with over a million chips. Daniel Negreanu was eliminated in 34th place.
Event #38: $3000 6-Handed Limit Hold’em also finishes today with 8 players still left in the field. Three-time bracelet winner Matt Matros is currently chip leader with 978,000 but he has 2015 Main Event Champion Joe McKeehen hot on his heels with 825,000.
