2018 WSOP Event 13: Benjamin Moon Wins $1,500 Big Blind Antes for $315,346

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Global Live Events Manager
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Benjamin Moon

After four days of play, Benjamin Moon can call himself the first ever winner of Event #13: $1,500 Big Blind Antes No-Limit Hold'em at the World Series of Poker. Moon got to take home his first-ever gold WSOP bracelet and $315,346 for finishing in first place out of 1,306 total entries.

“I’m trembling, I’m just so excited! It’s hard to explain. I only just started playing at the beginning of the year after taking a hiatus. Decided to try and go pro in October, playing the cash games in San Diego and then the tournaments in Los Angeles. Got a good start at the beginning of the year, since then cash has been going well and I decided to give it a shot here at the WSOP. And we’re here now.”

Moon was dominating the table and he had the following to say about it: “Kinda. I think that might be a bit of an understatement. My table draw was really fortunate. Colin (Robinson) was my biggest threat and I had position on him. I knew that there was so much pressure on everyone with these pay jumps so I just stayed aggressive the whole time.”

Benjamin Moon - 2018 $1,500 Big Blind Antes No-Limit Hold'em Winner
Benjamin Moon won $1,500 Big Blind Antes No-Limit Hold'em

Final Table Results

PlacePlayerCountryPrize
1Benjamin MoonUnited States$315,346
2Romain LewisFrance$194,837
3Colin RobinsonUnited States$138,938
4Steven SnyderUnited States$100,268
5Nhathanh NguyenUnited States$73,242
6Bohdan SlyvinskyiUnited States$54,160
7Eric PolirerUnited States$40,549
8Raymond HoUnited States$30,742
9Dutch BoydUnited States$23,605
Final Table Event 13 Big Blind Antes
Final Table Event #13 Big Blind Antes

Action of the final day

The final table started six-handed today with 28 hands being played yesterday to cut the number of players down from nine to six. The players still needed to play about 20 minutes of the level they finished in yesterday and nothing really happened until near the end of the second level of the day. Bohdan Slyvinskyi was first to say goodbye to the rest when he ran his ace-seven into the ace-queen of Colin Robinson in the 56th hand of the final table which was broadcasted on Twitch.TV, thanks to PokerCentral.

Even though Nhathanh Nguyen doubled up through Moon at first, two hands later, Nguyen’s deep run was done for today when his king-jack couldn’t win against Moon’s ace-seven. Nguyen got to take home $73,242 for his efforts and his first ever recorded live tournament cash. It would then take another 30 minutes for Moon to add another victim to his list. Steven Snyder shoved his king-four into the ace-ten of Moon for less than six big blinds. Snyder picked up a straight draw on the turn but the river didn’t bring it for him.

Only fifteen minutes later, Robinson’s run was over when he shoved with eight-five on the queen-four-six flop into the queen-six of Moon. Even though Robinson had a flush and straight draw, he couldn’t beat the two pair of Moon, even after the turn and river had been dealt.

Romain Lewis had the loudest and biggest rail with all the French people coming over to the Brasilia stage to cheer him on for every pay jump he managed to grab. But in hand #91 of the final table, Lewis got it in with ace-deuce suited against the ace-jack of Moon. The four-nine-trey flop gave Lewis a straight draw, the eight on the turn added even more outs for Lewis as he now also had a flush draw. But eight of clubs on the river wasn’t any of the outs he needed and Lewis cashed in for $194,837 for finishing as the runner-up which surpasses his biggest live cash ever.

Romain Lewis
Winamax pro Romain Lewis banked his biggest score finishing runner-up.

The big blind ante is a new format that the WSOP is trialing this summer and Moon seemed very pleased about it: “I love the big blind ante. They do it in Los Angeles, all the tournaments I played there have mostly been big blind ante. So, it makes it way faster. There is only one negative if there was any. It’s for short stack play, you seem to get punished more. Otherwise, it’s great.”

Moon will be back tomorrow, Saturday, June 9th, for the bracelet ceremony which will take place around 2:40 p.m. local time on the same Brasilia stage where he has just won. Keep following the PokerNews updates as the live reporting team will be here all summer to bring you all the action from the floor!

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