Orhan Ates took down WSOP Event #60, $525 Bounty No-Limit Hold’em on GGPoker for $180,177. In doing so, he became the first player from Turkey to ship a gold World Series of Poker bracelet.
Orhan Ates is no stranger to the winner’s circle. (Image: pokerstars.com)Ates worked hard for that bracelet. He also got lucky. Really lucky. The event had 3,170 entries, generating a prize pool of $1,585,000, and the final hand didn’t conclude until 12 hours after the first card of the tournament was dealt.
The newest WSOP champion is no stranger to winning poker tournaments. He won a pair of mid-stakes hold’em events over the past few years in Kyrenia for more than $70,000 each. And in 2018, he won $185,000 for third place in the $5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Main Event at the Merit Gangsters Poker Cup.
During the current WSOP Online Bracelet Series, currently taking place on GGPoker, he has three cashes. Prior to winning the bracelet, he finished 26th in Event #44, $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed for $11,697. High-roller star Kristen Bicknell won that event, earning her third bracelet.
Ates Racks Up the Bounties
In Thursday’s $525 bounty event, Ates won $114,584 for first place and added another $65,593 in bounties. Tobias Schwecht, from Austria, took second place and received $82,386 along with $15,629 in bounties, for a total of $98,015. Tomas Jozonis, who hails from Lithuania, was eliminated in third place and received $59,236, plus an additional $2,174 in bounties.
Ates received far and away the most bounty money — $65,593. Caique Sanches, who took home $20,626 worth of bounties, was the closest bounty hunter in the event. Sanchez finished in fifth place, good for another $30,624.
The tournament champion didn’t make his way into the winner’s circle without a bit of luck — okay, a lot of luck. Ates busted Sanches when he hit a straight on the river, cracking a flopped set of aces.
Schwecht lost an equally cruel hand to the eventual winner to end the tournament. He got his money all-in with pocket aces on a flop of 6-3-Q against Q-10. But the queen hit on the river, giving Ates trips and his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
