Damian Salas Claims WSOP Main Event World Championship Over Joseph Hebert

The World Series of Poker finally crowned its 2020 WSOP Main Event World Champion in 2021.

After a protracted final duel at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas on Sunday night, Damian Salas from Argentina triumphed over Joseph Hebert from Louisiana, securing the championship and an additional $1 million prize. This is in addition to the $1,550,969 that Salas had already earned for reaching the final two.

Salas wins WSOP Main Event after coming close in 2017

With a history of success both online and in-person, the seasoned professional, Salas, emerged as the victor in the $10,000 no-limit hold’em tournament that saw participation from 1,379 players.

Salas felt the victory was particularly satisfying considering how nearly he won the WSOP Main Event just three years prior.

Salas navigated through a field of 7,221 players to the final table in 2017. He eventually ranked seventh, earning $1.425 million.

The number of entries for this year’s WSOP Main Event was the lowest since it was relocated from Binion’s Horseshoe to the Rio.

Chris Moneymaker spurred the mid-2000s “poker boom” when he won the title in a competition against 839 players in 2003.

Lengthy heads-up duel ends in several pre-flop all-ins

Salas journeyed to Las Vegas for the final heads-up game after triumphing in the “international” section of the 2020 WSOP Main Event bracket. On the other hand, Hebert emerged from the “domestic” part of the competition to qualify for the heads-up.

Both players started with large stacks of 500,000 chips, equivalent to 500 big blinds. It took nearly six hours and 173 hands, with levels lasting 20 minutes each, to finish the showdown.

WSOP.com live updates reported several lead changes before Hebert managed to secure a significant 9-to-1 lead. Despite this, Salas bounced back by winning a double-up, followed by increasing his chips to level the playing field once again.

The intense struggle continued with players alternately taking the lead. Hebert then triumphed in an all-in, holding K-Q against Salas’s K-J, propelling him to a lead of over 3-to-1 in chips.

Salas regained the lead after winning the next all-in with A-10 against A-8. Hebert then doubled his stake with Q-4 against K-10 when a four appeared on the board. This brought them back to nearly equal standing.

In the end, Hebert pushed his 390,000 stack with A-Q, and Salas responded with K-J. The flop revealed a king, granting Salas a pair. Another king on the river resulted in three of a kind, securing Salas’s victory.

An unusual year, an unusual Main Event

The most unique version of the WSOP Main Event in its fifty-year history concluded on Sunday night.

The prestigious $10,000 buy-in tournament usually happens in Las Vegas during summer. Every year, it attracts thousands of players globally who come to compete. In recent years, it has taken two weeks to finish the tournament.

The original schedule of the 2020 WSOP Main Event, which included 101 bracelet events (87 live, 14 online), had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Online events were staged on the WSOP Nevada and New Jersey online sites, as well as on GGPoker outside the United States, from July to September instead.

In fact, the online series on GGPoker ended with a $5,000 buy-in tournament called the “WSOP Main Event.” Stoyan Madanzhiev from Bulgaria triumphed in this tournament, winning over $3.9 million by besting a field of 5,802 entries.

Many considered the tournament that Madanzhiev won on GGPoker to be the 2020 version of the WSOP Main Event. However, a November announcement clarified that a hybrid online-live WSOP Main Event would take place in December.

Online events produce live final tables, heads-up finale

In the hybrid WSOP Main Event, players took part in $10,000 freezeout tournaments individually on both WSOP.com and GGPoker sites. Each tournament narrowed down to nine players online. Invitations were then extended to these final nine in both scenarios to participate in a live final table, from which the two finalists were decided.

In the international segment, 674 players participated, with the final table being held at King’s Resort in Rozvadov, Czech Republic. On the domestic front, 705 players took part online, culminating in the final table, which was held live at the Rio just last week.

In both instances, only eight out of the nine players who reached the final tables ended up participating.

Internationally, Peiyun Sun from China decided against traveling to Rozvodov to participate in-person. In the U.S., Upeshka De Silva, a three-time bracelet winner, reached the final table but was unable to participate due to a positive COVID test. Both Sun and Upeshka received ninth-place money in their respective categories.

Indeed, the scheduling of the heads-up duel was also affected by the pandemic.

Originally, the match was planned for Dec. 30. However, the WSOP stated that “unforeseen travel complications due to the COVID-19 pandemic” caused the organizers to reschedule the finale to Sunday.

As documented, Salas won the international bracket and earned $1,550,969, while Hebert secured a victory in the domestic bracket, earning himself $1,553,256.

Salas amassed an extra $1 million from the prize pool contributed by the WSOP and GGPoker, pushing his total winnings to just above $2.55 million. This is the smallest first prize in the WSOP Main Event since Moneymaker’s $2.5 million win in 2003.