Congratulations to Arkadiy Tsinis, Winner of Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em ($540,136)!
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Another donkament has been done and dusted for the 2011 World Series of Poker with Event #38: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em being taken down by Arkadiy Tsinis.
Beginning several days ago with 2,192 entrants, the field was stacked with online grinders, seasoned pros and total amateurs all looking to take a piece of the $2,959,200 prizepool home. Nearly ninety-percent of the field was culled throughout day one as only 298 players managed to bag and tag and survive for a day two berth.
A bust-out here and there saw the money reached fairly quickly before a steady flow of eliminations throughout the day would leave just twenty-three players eyeing WSOP glory following Luke Staudenmaier (178th), Steve Brecher (174th), Bryan Devonshire (155th), Kai Paulson (108th), Matthias De Meulder (105th), Bernard Lee (78th), Sam Trickett (57th), Sebastian Ruthenberg (40th) and Tad Jurgens (32nd) all falling short of the (expected) final day.
The headline story was that notable female professional player Melanie Weisner was still in contention and looking not only to become another female to make a WSOP final table this series, but also prove victorious. Unfortunately for Weisner, her run would end in 14th place as the final table of nine was reached at the mid-point of the day.
Play would start slowly, but following a double elimination and then a quick exit by David Rounick in seventh, we were down to six before Perry Lin and Paul Nash fell next. With three levels remaining in the night, Randolph Lanosga would fall in third as Arkadiy Tsinis held a three-to-two heads-up chip advantage over Michael Blanovsky.
Tsinis would extend his lead to be nearly an eight-to-one favorite before Blanovsky doubled through and then closed the gap to virtually even. Tsinis would then push back out to the biggest lead of the battle before play was called for the night with Tsinis (7,110,000) holding the lead against Blanovsky (2,765,000). Returning today, Blanovsky found a double and then eventually took the lead before Tsinis would snatch it back with a double holding 
before eventually turning the nut-straight in an all-in preflop clash to send Blanovsky to the rail.
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Arkadiy Tsinis | USA | $540,136 |
| 2nd | Michael Blanovsky | USA | $336,253 |
| 3rd | Randolph Lanosga | USA | $233,732 |
| 4th | Pim de Goede | France | $168,334 |
| 5th | Paul Nash | England | $123,028 |
| 6th | Perry Lin | USA | $91,010 |
| 7th | David Rounick | USA | $68,209 |
| 8th | Ryan Laplante | USA | $51,771 |
| 9th | Christopher Homan | USA | $39,756 |
For Tsinis, this marks his eleventh WSOP cash and first major victory of his poker career. However it is his old-school gamer career that now will have to do some catching up as this chess pro and top twenty world backgammon player has a gold bracelet to add to his trophy cabinet as well as $540,136 in prizemoney.
PokerNews would like to congratulate Arkadiy Tsinis on an excellently played tournament that feature bouts of aggression and timeliness to eventually topple the 2,192-player field. If you at home haven't got your $1,500 donkament fix, then head over to the Event #43: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em coverage as the best live reporting team in the business continues to provide live updates of the 2011 World Series of Poker!