Ian Steinman Holds On For Player of the Series, Nahrain Tamero Wins Final WSOP.com Event For $310K

Playing under the screenname 2Rivers, Nahrain Tamero was the only player who David Tuchman and Maria Ho didn’t have a name for — or any other information on — on the official WSOP broadcast of the event. But in the end, it was the formerly anonymous Tamero who overcame the rest of the field to win the first-place prize of $310,832 and the first WSOP bracelet of his poker career.

The $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship event of the World Series of Poker Online Series yielded a massive prize pool of $2,019,700 generated by 1,455 players and 671 rebuys. This was the biggest prize pool of the series, and Tamero’s top prize of $310,832 was second only to the $352,985 won by Joe McKeehen (fanofdapoker) in the $3,200 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller event on July 14.

Second-place finisher Norman Michalek (Abnormality) eliminated Andrew Lichtenberger (WATCHGUY42) in third place to enter heads up with a commanding chip lead of 30.5 million chips to Tamero’s 12 million chips. In the key hand of heads-up play, Michalek triple-barrel bluffed Tamero with an all-in shove on the river. Tamero snap-called with 6♦ 4♦ on a 5♦ 2♣ 6♣ J♠ 2♦ and took over the chip lead as he was good against Michalek’s Q♥ 4♠. The first-time bracelet winner never surrendered his lead en route to victory.

$1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship Results

1. 1. Nahrain Tamero (2Rivers) — $310,832
2. 2. Norman Michalek (Abnormality) — $192,073
3. 3. Andrew Lichtenberger (WATCHGUY42) — $140,167
4. 4. Brian Kirchhoff (FOXXX) — $103,207
5. 5. Edan Sucov (goatplaya) — $76,749
6. 6. Greg Wish (Bubblealot) — $57,561
7. 7. Arian Stolt (4632647) — $43,424
8. 8. Michael Bailey (Merlot) — $33,123
9. 9. Kevin Calenzo (Specialk333) — $25,650

Ian Steinman Finishes First on $100,000 Leaderboard

Ian Steinman (APokerJoker2) was eliminated from the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Championship in 314^th place, min-cashing the event for $1,616. Due to the massive prize pool up for grabs in Event #31, a handful of players were still mathematically alive to take the top spot from Steinman on the $100,000 Leaderboard after his exit. All Steinman could do was watch and wait to see if his lead would hold.

Philip Ye (tomte) finished in 261^st place, Dave Alfa (DunningKrugr) finished in 225^th, Joe McKeehen finished in 215^th, and Eric Baldwin (CircleBall) finished in 214^th  — each cashing for $1,818. Anthony Zinno (heheh) made it to 129^th place ($2,424) before hitting the rail, and Event #21 winner Tony Dunst landed in 106^th place for $2,626

Ryan 'Protential' Laplante (@Protentialmn) finished the @WSOPcom portion of the 2020 WSOP Online with the most cashes at 16. Ian 'APokerJoker2' Steinman, Daniel 'DNegs' Negreanu, and Ben 'WhyIsGamora' Yu tied for second at 15.

— Donnie Peters 🍕 (@Donnie_Peters) August 1, 2020

This left only three players still alive to catch Steinman. The sweat continued down to four tables before Ryan Laplante (Protential) was eliminated in 30^th place for $7,877. Bryan Piccioli (Pellepelle) quickly followed in 27^th place for $9,897. Soon after the action made its way down to two tables, Ian Steinman could finally celebrate his victory when Upsehka De Silva (gomezhamburg) was eliminated in 18^th place for $12,320.

Steinman’s win on the WSOP $100,000 Leaderboard earns the poker pro an $18,000 first-place prize and bragging rights as the de facto player of the series.

Top 9 $100,000 Leaderboard Finishers and Cash Prizes

1. 1. Ian Steinman (APokerJoker2) — $18,000
2. 2. Ryan Torgersen (Im.Sorry) — $12,000
3. 3. Robert Kuhn (BustinBalls) — $9,000
4. 4. Philip Yeh (tomte) — $7,000
5. 5. Roland Israelashvili (prngls12) — $5,000
6. 6. William Romaine (SlaweelRyam) — $4,000
7. 7. Tony Dunst (Panoramic) — $3,000
8. 8. Jonathan Dokler (Art.Vandelay) — $2,000
9. 9. Ryan Leng (Adopt_aDogg0) — $2,000