One of poker's best players comes through for first bracelet win
June 29, 2017 (Las Vegas, NV) - With just one tournament win on Thursday night, Mohsin Charania accomplished three things. He took his name off of the dreaded 'Best Player Without a Bracelet' list, and added another huge score to his lengthy list of tournament results.
Just after midnight, Charania won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em. He defeated a field of 1,580 players and a tough final table to take home his first piece of WSOP hardware and $364,438.
Charania established himself as one of the best players online in a pre-Black Friday poker landscape, but made a seamless transition to the live scene, having won over $5.6 million in tournaments around the world. Even multiple seven-figure scores to his name, a bracelet is still something to celebrate.
"This is pretty damn awesome," said Charania.
Throughout his final table, the Chicago native had one of the loudest rails of the summer. With lots of support from his friends, it made for a rowdy atmosphere on the live streamed final table.
"This happens when I'm just playing online on Tuesday, so I'm used to it. Wait until you see me get deep in like a $109 [online]. It's just chaos," joked Charania. "No, you get used to it and you learn to block it out and you know like you're kind of excited because you know that when you win a pot, everyone is going to cheer for you, so it's kind of nice."
When Day 2 ended on Wednesday night with 23 players, Charania was one of the bigger stacks remaining. The start of Day 3 didn't go as smoothly as Day 2. When they redrew for seats with 10 players left, Charania was one of the shorter stacks in the field.
Even with his first bracelet on the line, he felt less pressure as a smaller stack than when he was stacking towers of chips.
"I kind of felt, maybe a little bit of pressure coming into the day because I had a lot of chips," said Charania. "And then the day just didn't work out for me in the beginning, so I was like seven of 10. It was really kind of a straightforward final table. I didn't get into any crazy spots, so I didn't have to make any massive decisions, so I never felt like any intense pressure."
When the day started with 23 players, there was a ton of talent still in the field, but some of it faltered along the way before the final table was reached. Jason Mercier, Phil Collins and Rainer Kempe were just a few of the top players that failed to survive to the final table.
By the time the final table was reached, it was Sam Phillips with the chip lead. Phillips didn't give an inch to Charania and forced him into tough spots all day long.
"To start the day, I lost a huge pot to Cary [Katz] and I had a really bad seat because Sam Phillips was on my direct left with the chip lead," said Charania. "So, I kind of couldn't really do anything and then when we got down to 10, he redrew right back to my left and at the final table, he was on my left. So I was kind of handicapped. And then once he was eliminated, I had more breathing room."
There was plenty of action throughout the early portions of the final table, but Charania stayed out of the way of most of it. Milan Simko hit the rail in ninth place and Yanki Koppel fell in eighth at the hands of Charania. But over the course of the first few eliminations, it was Brandon Ageloff who began to separate himself from the pack.
Ageloff had nearly half of the chips in play with six players left after he won a huge flip against reigning WSOP.com online player of the year Ian Steinman. Steinman was all in with against Ageloff's .
There wasn't much drama after a flop of , giving Ageloff quads and leaving Steinman drawing to the last two aces in the deck. They didn't come and Steinman earned $48,276 for his finish.
Phillips made Charania's life tough for most of the day, but it was Charania who got the last laugh in their own battle. Phillips shoved from the small blind with and was called by Charania's . Charania's hand held up and Phillips hit the rail in sixth and gave Charania some breathing room as he moved into the top echelon of the chip counts.
Russian Mikhail Rudoy fell in fifth, leaving the table four-handed with several world class players. Ageloff had about 60% of the chips in play but was up against the eventual winner in Charania, two-time bracelet winner Andy Frankenberger and high roller regular Cary Katz.
Frankenberger was short through all of four-handed play and couldn't get much momentum. He ended up blinding down to less than one big blind before being eliminated by Katz.
The turning point of the tournament came three-handed when Charania battled with Ageloff. Ageloff ended up four-betting all in with and got picked off by Charania's . The board ran out clean for Charania and he took over the chip lead.
"Yeah, I mean, that gave me the 2-to-1 chip lead three-handed," said Charania. "So that was probably the most important all in for the tournament for me in general."
Charania finished the job, eliminating Ageloff about an hour later.
"Lucky for me, I opened five-deuce and it just came six-three-four," said Charania. "And the guy just had kings and at that point I had a ton of breathing room."
Charania started heads-up play against Katz, who is also the owner of PokerGO, the company responsible for this year's live streams, with a nearly 3-to-1 chip lead.
Over the course of heads-up play, Charania whittled away at Katz's stack and got the last of it in the middle in a great spot with his up against Katz's . Katz couldn't find any help and he hit the rail in second, taking home $225,181.
"It was kind of just a smooth sailing final table," said Charania. "And that happens when you are getting good cards and running good."
Full Results
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Final Table Results:
1st: Mohsin Charania - $364,438
2nd: Cary Katz - $225,181
3rd: Brandon Ageloff - $161,844
4th: Andy Frankenberger - $117,611
5th: Mikhail Ruody - $86,424
6th: Samuel Phillips - $64,226
7th: Ian Steinman - $48,276
8th: Yanki Koppel - $36,708
9th: Milan Simko - $28,239