Femi Fashionin took the biggest event in poker history, winning the special “BIG 50” $500 No-Limit Hold’em Event #3 at the 2019 WSOP. The victory was worth $1,147,449 with Fashionin’s first gold bracelet.
Paschakin won the event after a grueling five-day run, with about 5,000 players topping the WSOP’s previous single-event turnout record. Prior to the event, Paschakin, a 37-year-old from Lagos, Nigeria who now lives in Orlando, Florida, recorded four WSOPs and circuit caches with a total of $12,171. In the final hand of the all-out war, Paschakin’s aces held Cullen’s hand.
Pashkin’s final enemy turned out to be 35-year-old Paul Cullen from Montreal, who now lives in Las Vegas. Cullen cashed in here for $709,183, after recording WSOP cash for $1,398.
Third place in the BIG 50 went to Tel Aviv, Israel’s Rafi Elhar. Elhar held the lead for many of the final stages, but was unable to outpace Fashionin and Culler. Elhar’s performance was worth $534,574.
California’s La Ca40ada Flintridge took fourth place with $405,132. In fifth place, the $308,071 prize went to Hamilton Beach in Walter Atwood, California.
Pasakin moved to the United States from Nigeria in 2001 and entered Bethune Cookman College majoring in computer science with a full scholarship. For the next decade or so from there, he worked for what he described as the “Fortune 500 Companies,” eventually establishing himself as an independent consultant majoring in software engineering.
Pashkin caught the poker bug shortly after. “I started playing in 2010 or 2011,” he told WSOP. “But I was playing with my friends and my wife; my wife had a cousin who played a cash game, and I played with them. My background – I used to play a lot of chess; I never studied, but I was pretty good. But by the time I started studying chess and started to play competitively, I was adrift and didn’t do it. 슬롯머신
“So when I found a poker game, I couldn’t believe it. I thought, ‘This is a game where I can analyze my mind and use it.’ So I got a little bit more interested in the game, and I started watching WSOP and WPT. But that’s when I realized it didn’t make sense. The level they were playing – they were all going into the Jack Five.
“So I started playing at a local bar. Wait a minute. I played about six months a year. And I thought I graduated. So I started going to Hard Rock in Tampa, Florida’s main tour destination. “And I had some cash with me. Then I started going to southern Florida and did a $360 [purchase event] and then $570.” In other words, he climbed up a ladder.
However, he only released minor results at the WSOP before the Big 50, with two cash prizes in Las Vegas and two at the Southern Florida Circuit, totaling just over $12,000. But he wasn’t deterred. “I always felt I could play poker. I had room to improve, but I had some skills.”
Paschakin had one goal in mind at an early stage, successfully sailing through the largest field in WSOP history. Taking several breaks along the way, it became a $1.147 million payday. It was such a large amount that after a few minutes, he still didn’t believe it. But it not only gave him a huge amount of poker bankrolls, but it also gave him more to share with his family. Paschakin is in a happy marriage and has two children, 8 1/2 years old and 2 1/2 years old.
Seven players returned for the streamed action on day four in the Big 50. Two players made it to the final round, but were eliminated late on day three: Singapore’s Morten Christensen took eighth place with $141,126, while Maplewood, Minnesota’s David Rasmussen took ninth place with $109,922.
Houston, Texas’ Adrian Curry was the first to smash in the streamed finale. Curry and Elhar participated in the pre-flop betting war, which ended with Curry getting in trouble against Elhar. Curry couldn’t find help on the board, and finished with only $182,192 in seventh place.
Danny Ghobrial followed Curry on the rail eight hours later. The Toronto native, who now lives in Los Angeles, Ghobrial was just three big blinds when both Elhara and Chau went all-in. Chau bet on the flop, Elhara folded, and Chau showed. Ghobrial couldn’t connect with the turn, which held his hands or the river in place. Ghobrial pocketed $236,508 for sixth place.
Nearly 40 more people had elapsed before California’s Atwood took fifth place in the BIG 50 in Huntington Beach, California. Under this runaway situation, Chow started at $30 million and Atwood participated in all of the $136 million. Chow thought long enough for Atwood to ring a watch, but eventually, Chow called and led against Atwood. Although Atwood went straight to Broadway, Flop came to give Chow a pair of aces. However, the direction and river were empty for Atwood, and he set off to earn a monthly salary of $308,701.
The marathon portion of the BIG 50 finale occurred during a forehand play, when an all-in, short athlete doubled and survived. The line ended with Nick Chow finishing fourth with his first career WSOP cash of $405,132. Chow led the chip against Pasakin. Flop moved well ahead of Pasakin and rarely put Chow out, and Turn and River, which blushed for Pasakin, determined Chow’s fate.
It left three, and just a few minutes later, when Elpara lunged for his last $155 million, it became two. Pashkin made a good purchase of Elpara, but the color drained for a moment before calling. Pashkin moved further forward, with the direction and the river in front of him. That made Elpara collect his third-place salary, $534,374.
Pasakin outscored Cullen by a margin of 2-1 when the preview game began, but with only 45 big blinds between them, the end would come quickly. That happened when Pasakin limped in from a button and Cullen bet $140 million, almost half of his stack. Pasakin moved around and Cullen called for the rest of his chip, but found his hands far behind Pasakin’s. There was still some tension because Flop was paired with Cullen’s queen, but Turn and River made Pasakin’s aces the winning hands.
Event #3, BIG 50 – $500 No-Limit Hold’em set a real-time event record of 28,371 and generated a prize of $13,509,435. 4,150 players used cash, and the minimum cash for the event was $750.