The ongoing poker tournament in the Bahamas is already finding big winners
After over 15 hours of play, Allan Mello of Brazil won the $1 million first-place prize and his first bracelet at Event #2: $1,500 Millionaire Maker at the 2023 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Paradise in The Bahamas. He would beat Nazar Buhaiov after a heads-up play went back and forth for several hours.
The Millionaire Maker attracted 3,496 online players on GGPoker and carried a prize pool of $5,233,000, with 100 advancing to the live tables at Atlantis Resort. Among them were Maxime Parys, who took 5th place and $128,000. Arnaud Enselme would finish 8th for $65,000, and WSOP all-time cash leader Roland Israelashvili took home 9th place for $50,000.
“I can’t believe I won this,” Mello told PokerNews after his victory. “I dreamed of this. Finally, I got my first bracelet and my biggest win of $1 million! So I am very happy.”
All 100 players advancing to the live portion of the tournament were guaranteed a payday of at least $5,000. Several bracelet winners were among the first to be eliminated, including Artur Martirosian (69th for $6,000), Alexandros Kolonias (70th for $6,000), David Miscikowski (79th for $5,000) and Barry Hutter (100th for $5,000).
American Clemen Deng would fall to Mello in sixth place for $103,500. After Maksim Vaskresenski went to the rail in fourth place ($158,500), Morten Norland would lose to Nazar Buhaiov, taking third for $263,500.
The final hand saw Buhaiov (2nd for $593,500) get to the river with ten-high, but Mello sniffed out his bluff with third pair to take the title and $1,000,000 top prize.
Editor at the Big Blind, is a rising star in gambling journalism with a decade of experience, focusing on clear and accessible communication for a diverse audience.
