Filippos Stavrakis Dedicates WSOP PLO Bracelet to Late Brother Jimmy
June 15, 2018 2:32 pm
Filippos Stavrakis has claimed victory at WSOP Event #26: $1,000 PL Omaha, after besting a field of 986 players over three days to claim a top prize of $169,842, not to mention a coveted gold winner’s bracelet. Prior to his latest triumph, the 46-year old player from Baltimore in Maryland had $106,765 in winnings, with his previous biggest score coming in 2017 following a 6th place finish at the WSOP Circuit Mashantucket for $30,035.
Last year also proved somewhat of a breakout year for Stavrakis as in previous years (2011-2016) all of his total end of year winnings were in the low four figures. In 2017, however, Stavrakis booked $64,503 in cashes, and so far in 2018 has added another $189,085 to his tournament haul. Furthermore, he took down the WSOP event while his wife was in Las Vegas supporting him, and as Stavrakis explains:
“My wife is very superstitious. She always thinks she brings bad luck and she is actually quite the opposite for me.”
“For Jimmy. Love & Miss You Bro”
Each year, the World Series of Poker is filled with inspirational stories about ordinary people overcoming extraordinary odds in pursuit of poker glory. Chris Moneymaker winning the 2003 Main Event after qualifying via an $86 online satellite on PokerStars provides one of the most well known examples, while the UK’s John Hesp making it through to the 2017 WSOP Final table also caused quite a buzz, especially since the affable semi-retiree had previously only cashed in small local tourneys in his native Hull.
Without a doubt, Filippos Stavrakis winning a gold bracelet also qualifies as one of those memorable feel good stories, as it seems that the player drew motivation and inspiration for his victory from his little brother Jimmy who sadly passed away a few years ago. As can be seen in his winners photo, Filippos subsequently dedicated his win to his sibling in a note stating “For Jimmy. Love & miss you bro”, and as he later explained:
“We lost my little brother a couple of years ago. I’ve been playing poker for a long time, and I always said that if I was fortunate enough to win a bracelet, I’d dedicate it to him. It means a lot; it felt like he was there for me all day.”
$1,000 PL Omaha
The $1,000 PL Omaha event was held at the Rio Convention Center, and featured a prize pool of $887,400. Amongst the recognizable players finishing in one of its 146 money spots was Joe Cada in 75th ($1,962), Kirill Gerasimov in 64th ($2,190), Martin Finger in 59th ($2,485), Alex Condon in 42nd ($3,363), Shannon Shorr in 29th ($4,008), and Arthur Morris in 10th ($9,435).
Stavrakis then started the final table on a stack almost three times that of his nearest rival Jordan Siegel, with the duo outlasting the remaining players, including notable pros Thayer Rasmussen (7th) and Felipe Ramos (3rd), to reach the final phase of the competition.
Stavrakis vs Siegel
Stavrakis began heads-up play holding a roughly 2-1 chip advantage over California’s Siegel, and before long the latter was reduced to just 13 big blinds when the deciding hand was played. Stavrakis (Ad-7d-7c-4s) raised preflop, inducing a call from Siegel (Ac-8d-6d-2d), and after the flop fell Kd-7s-4d, the last of the chips went in with Siegel’s flush draw and a straight draw up against the middle set and nut flush draw of his opponent. A Qh and 10h on turn and river ensured Stavrakis’ set stayed ahead, though, with Siegel then collecting $104,924 for his runner-up finish.
Meawhile, Filippos Stavrakis was awarded the gold bracelet, with his victory in Las Vegas forever commemorating the brother who he loved, but lost prematurely.
Final Table Result
1: Filippos Stavrakis $169,842
2: Jordan Siegel $104,924
3: Felipe Ramos $73,989
4: Clint Monfort $52,879
5: Peter Klein $38,309
6: Pascal Damois $28,137
7: Thayer Rasmussen $20,957
8: Georgios Karavokyris $15,832
9: Robert Cowen $12,133