Family Man Nick Schulman Ships Sixth Bracelet in Event #15: $5,000 The Closer
After two weeks of action on the felt here at the beautiful Atlantis Paradise Island Bahamas, the 2024 World Series of Poker Paradise has officially come to an end with Nick Schulman claiming victory in Event #15: $5,000 The Closer No-Limit Hold'em Bounty Turbo.
The final tournament of the series attracted 238 entries, generating a prize pool of $1,190,000. Schulman defeated Ren Lin in a short heads-up match to capture the first-place prize of $145,000 as well as the coveted WSOP gold bracelet.
$5,000 The Closer NLH Bounty Turbo Final Table Results
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nick Schulman | United States | $145,000 |
| 2 | Ren Lin | China | $110,000 |
| 3 | Arkadiy Tsinis | Ukraine | $84,600 |
| 4 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $65,200 |
| 5 | Santhosh Suvarna | India | $50,800 |
| 6 | Shaun Deeb | United States | $39,400 |
| 7 | Samuel Mullur | Austria | $30,500 |
| 8 | Meir Meystel | United States | $23,400 |
| 9 | Sosia Jiang | New Zealand | $18,100 |
| 10 | Ebony Kenney | United States | $14,100 |
Winner's Reaction
As heads-up play began, Schulman's wife and daughter arrived on the rail just in time to witness him winning his sixth WSOP bracelet. When asked about what it means to have them present Schulman mentioned, "Got my family over there, love them so much. That was huge for me this trip. They usually don't travel with me but my little girl is old enough or what have you."
He continued, "Bringing them to The Bahamas was great, it's a special thing. I'm grateful for the life poker has afforded me and I'm 40 now so some perspective I suppose comes with that. We just had a really great trip, it was so fun. I accepted the bad days. I was thankful for the good days. And this is a really sweet way to close it out."
Day 2 Eliminations
Only 37 competitors returned for Day 2 action, all looking to close out the series on a high note. The tournament's structure set a quick pace, with the remaining field that started the day nearly cut in half within the first few levels. Even after the two-table redraw, players continued to get eliminated at a rapid-fire rate.
Many familiar faces returned for one last chance at winning a piece of WSOP hardware before heading home. Those who made deep runs but ultimately fell short of capping off the series with a final table were Artur Martirosian (28th), Michael Acevedo (23rd), Daniel Zack (19th), Georgios Sotiropoulos (14th) and Hossein Ensan (12th).
Ebony Kenney, the Day 2 chip leader heading into the day, navigated her way to the ten-handed final table but was eliminated in tenth. She was involved in a double knockout that saw the other female at the final table, Sosia Jiang, exit in ninth.
Poker's Elite Go Toe-to-Toe
With a total of 22 bracelets combined among the final seven players, the stage was set for some of the biggest names in the poker world to battle it out. In what would prove to be a dream final table lineup, it was clear that the bracelet and the legacy were more important than the remaining prize pool.
Schulman entered the final table second in chips and showed no signs of slowing down. He started by knocking out Samuel Mullur and Shaun Deeb in seventh and sixth places, respectively, when they were both down to just a couple of big blinds.
Next to fall was Santhosh Suvarna in fifth when he got it all in with queen-ten against Schulman's jack-eight. Schulman found an eight on the turn to propel himself atop the counts four-handed.
Shortly after Daniel Negreanu exited in fourth courtesy of Lin, Schulman found his next victim in Arkadiy Tsinis. He won a crucial flip with ace-queen against Tsinis' pocket treys to give him nearly a two-to-one chip advantage entering heads-up play.
It only took a few hands for Schulman to be crowned a winner, with him extending his lead right out of the gate. In the final hand of play, Lin was left with less than ten big blinds and got it all in with queen-eight against Schulman's ace-king, which proved to be best.
After winning his second no-limit hold'em bracelet in 2024, Schulman was asked to what he attributes his success in the format to this year. He explained, "No-Limit wise, I mean I really do love the game. I think being more willing to just accept things out of my control and just try to better myself. Really all the cliches you can think of kind of help. But then poker's so sick because you never know, maybe were just getting lucky. So I'm just trying to take it one day at a time."
That wraps up coverage of the $5,000 The Closer NLH Bounty Turbo here at the 2024 WSOP Paradise. Be sure to follow PokerNews for future events all around the globe.