Congratulations to Matt Matros, Winner of Event #52: $2,500 Mixed Hold'em ($303,501)!
Matt Matros was crowned winner of the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em event, earning his second career bracelet. The Limit Hold'em specialist won the $1,500 Limit event last year. He has come close to another final table twice already this year, finishing 12th in the $2,500 Limit Six Max event and 11th in the $1,500 Limit event that he'd won in 2010. This time he went all the way and now has the double gold to prove it.
This was one of the few events that reached a final table by the end of Day 2, so it was only the final nine who sat down at the felt this afternoon. Adam Sanders was the first to make his exit in ninth place, followed by Aalok Arora in eighth. Dutch pro Noah "Exclusive" Boeken then fell in seventh place. After three quick eliminations, the final table stalled at six. After some back-and-forth, Russian Nikolay Losev was eliminated in sixth place.
Matros was extremely short at the dinner break. But after dinner it was Brian Smith who exited first, in fifth place. Matros doubled and doubled again. Brandon Meyers started the day with a big chip lead, but with the limit rounds of each hour playing so big, every player experienced wide swings. Meyers, who plays as "norajean" online, had the biggest lead of the tournament after one particularly dominant round of four-handed no limit. During the next round of limit, however, he got run over by limit experts Matros and Matt "Hoss_TBF" Hawrilenko. He was the short stack when they made it back to no limit and got his chips in with queens against the kings of Matros to finish in fourth place.
And then there were three: bracelet-winning limit hold'em experts and good friends Matt and Matt, and Jonathan Lane, a relatively unknown player who is having a fantastic series. Matros knocked out his good friend, Hawrilenko, in third place, making a flush to best Hawrilenko's two pair in limit hold'em. That gave Matros a 3:1 chip lead to start heads up. Lane fought valiantly, even taking the lead at one point, but in the end, it was Matros who won the day. Lane earned $187,844 in his fifth cash of the Series a week after finishing sixth at the final table of a $1,000 No Limit event. Matros was all smiles with his $303,501 and his second career bracelet.