South Americans conquered the biggest prizes of both the last Super MILLION$ and WSOP’s International main event. An Uruguayan and an Argentine received over $646,000 and $1.5 million, respectively. Both events had noteworthy prize pools and skillful players and quite a cosmopolitan final table and should not go unnoticed.
Some Information About the Latest South American Poker Winners
Making his way into getting the WSOP World Champion title, Damian Salas had his second WSOP FT this time. Three years ago, he was among the nine top competitors in the world-renowned poker competition.
As for the Super MILLION$ with over $5 million prize pool, the final table was conquered by Joaquin Melogno. Together with his outstanding prize money, he also took home his second WSOP Circuit ring.
How Did Damian Salas Win the WSOP International Main Event?
As Peiyuan Sun made the decision not to travel to the small town of Rozvadov, only eight players were part of an entertaining and exciting final table. Hannes Speiser was the first to be eliminated with his queen-ten, followed by the Bulgarian Stoyan Obreshkov.
Marco Streda survived longer than Dominykas Mikolaitis, from Lithuania, but ended up being defeated by Ruivo’s aces. Ramon Miquel Munoz followed him, but Ruivo went home with $728 million in 3rd place.
Finally, the last dispute was between Argentina and Brazil, which definitely made the day of their compatriot viewers, due to the sportive rivalry between both countries. They were represented by Damian Salas and Brunno Botteon, respectively.
Botteon had a better heads-up, but Sala’s Top Two Pair determined the results and gave him the first place. Even so, Botteon got over $1 million, far more than his previous $80,000 in live circuits. Also, it was the second biggest live prize of a Brazilian in history.
Melogno’s Trajectory to Victory in Super Million$
The special edition of Super MILLION$, part of WSOP’s Circuit, made the Uruguayan Joaquin Melogno the champion. While Sala faced Botteon with twice as chips, Melogno had to beat the Russian Andrey Kotelnikov with an advantage of over three times.
The first of the nine players to go was Nuutinen, a Finland player, followed by the Brazilian “RogerScruton”, who did not perform as well as his countryman Botteon in the WSOP event.
Then, Joakim Andersson defeated Samuel Vousden’s all-in with queen-ten. Another relevant name in the poker world, Phil Mighall, lost to ‘MK-Ultra’ and his pocket jacks against ace-jack of spades.
Next, Melogno held well against ‘veca’, and had his call with king-queen beat the all-in king-six by Joakim Andersson. Not surprisingly, he gave ‘MK-Ultra’ a third place to call his own and finally crushed his Russian opponent with pocket queens against his pocket nines.
What’s Next?
Up next, Damian Salas had to travel to Las Vegas and face Joseph Hebert, the US Champion. It was a tight race, but in the end, Salas won the title and the $1 million prize! Congrats!
