Jeremy Perrin Wins Event #6: $365 GIANT No-Limit Hold'em ($250,966)
Another champion has been crowned at the 2018 World Series of Poker and it was Jeremy Perrin that emerged victorious in Event #6: $365 GIANT No-Limit Hold'em, taking home his maiden bracelet and a payday of $250,966 for his efforts. The event with the smallest buy-in of the entire schedule had five separate starting days and drew 8,920 entries with a total of $2,676,000 in prize money. Players could earn several cashes in their respective flights, and it was Perrin that came out on top, defeating Puerto Rican Luis Vazquez in heads-up play.
"I feel pretty good. I actually thought it was the PLO GIANT and then I got two cards instead of four, figured I might just ship it," Perrin said, surrounded by his friends during the winner interview. It was the first bracelet event he entered, and there was an additional incentive for him to do well with a very specific prop bet.
"If we play in a tournament together, a ring or bracelet event and we both play, and I win or he wins, I get to pick a tramp stamp for him that he has to keep for a year. That is in stone. That's all I have played for. The money doesn't matter, I gonna take the bracelet and melt it down into gold fronts. I'll take the money, put it into a shredder, and just want to get his tramp stamp."
Perrin insisted to be very serious about this, much to the laughter of the friends right next to him.
It wasn't an easy ride to victory for the Omaha cash game player, as Perrin was one of the shorter stacks at the start of the final table with just 19 big blinds. After barely playing any hands early on, he doubled with pocket jacks in the first orbit and was essentially aiming for pay jumps.
"I didn't play a hand for two hours. Honestly, I played for sixth place, then I wanted to make third, and then for the win."
Several double-ups later, Perrin was suddenly among the last three and second in chips when he clashed with eventual third-place finisher Svetlozar Nestorov in a crucial hand that would define the outcome of the tournament. Perrin moved all in with pocket aces and got the call he wanted to take an overwhelming lead.
"I already looked at my hand, knew what I had. I told him I was thinking about a chop, and they didn't want to chop. So fuck it, I am all in. Then he woke up with ace-king and popped it. That was bad for him. That was actually a pretty good one."
Among the notables to reach the final day of the event were WSOP bracelet winner Daniel Fuhs, who was eliminated in nineth place for $25,319 and Russia's Alexander Lakhov (fifth place, $69,571). It was Lakhov's second WSOP final table of the summer and third in total, and he once again missed out on the coveted gold bracelet by a very small margin.
Final Table Result
| Place | Winner | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jeremy Perrin | United States | $250,966 |
| 2 | Luis Vazquez | United States | $155,478 |
| 3 | Svetlozar Nestorov | Bulgaria | $118,444 |
| 4 | Renato Kaneoya | Brazil | $90,599 |
| 5 | Alexander Lakhov | Russia | $69,571 |
| 6 | Kevin Rines | United States | $53,751 |
| 7 | Lawrence Chan | United States | $41,953 |
| 8 | Matthew Smith | United States | $32,433 |
| 9 | Daniel Fuhs | United States | $25,319 |
The 2018 WSOP Event #6: $365 GIANT No-Limit Hold'em at a Glance
| *Tournament Day | Entries | Survivors |
| 1a | 1,289 | 80 |
| 1b | 969 | 49 |
| 1c | 1,148 | 55 |
| 1d | 1,167 | 63 |
| 1e | 4,347 | 280 |
| 2 | 527/8,920 | 9 |
Action of the Final Day
Only nine players remained and the only former WSOP bracelet winner among the finalists was sent to the rail first in Daniel Fuhs. He three-bet shoved with ace-king and initial raiser Luis Vazquez called with king-queen to spike a queen on the flop, ensuring that a first-time champion would be crowned. Just over one hour later, the field was reduced to the final four after several short stacks ran out of chips in quick succession.
Matthew Smith doubled early on, then called a shove by Renato Kaneoya blind-on-blind with ace-king suited. Kaneoya only had queen-eight, but an eight on the flop awarded the pot to the Brazilian. Lawrence Chan lost a flip with pocket sixes against the king-queen of Kevin Rines when a king appeared on the river only to become the next casualty soon after.
First Rines lost almost all of his chips to Alexander Lakhov when his jacks failed to hold up versus sixes, and Lakhov finished off the job the very next hand with ace-seven suited against jack-eight. Lakhov then became the fifth-place finisher not even 20 minutes later when his ace-six suited ended up second-best to the ace-jack of Vazquez.
By then a large rail had built in the corner section of the Brasilia room. The location was a good omen for Brazilian Kaneoya, but it wasn't meant to be for the fifth gold bracelet for his home country and second of the 2018 WSOP. Kaneoya's run came to an end in a dramatic flip against Svetlozar Nestorov when his ace-ten flopped top two pair against the pair of eights of Nestorov. A jack on the flop gave the Bulgarian more outs and the eight on the rail sent his rail into ecstasy.
Down to the last three, double-ups were traded several times and Nestorov failed to hold onto a commanding lead and his downfall was almost complete after losing the vast majority of his stack when calling the shove of Perrin with ace-king only to run straight into pocket aces. Nestorov doubled once before ending up second-best with ace-five against Vazquez's ace-eight.
In heads-up, Perrin held an overwhelming lead and Vazquez doubled once, but eventually fell short in a coinflip with pocket fours against king-ten suited. Perrin was swiftly dubbed as “Jeremy the Giant” by his rail and even joked about jumping into the Pot-Limit Omaha version of THE GIANT soon after.
That brings an end to the PokerNews live reporting of this event, while the highlight of the annual summer camp is right around the corner with Day 1a of the $10,000 Main Event to kick off at 11 a.m. Local time on Monday, July 2nd, 2018.