Ben Heath first million dollar winner at 2019 WSOP

The first million has been paid out at the 2019 World Series of Poker.

Ben Heath was the last man standing in the High Roller $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em tournament to cash $1,484,085 and his first WSOP bracelet.

Not surprisingly, the final table was a collection of former WSOP winners with big bankrolls. In fact, Heath was the only player at the six-man final table that had not previously won a WSOP bracelet. The final six had seven WSOP bracelets between them including a pair for Nick Petrangelo and Chance Kornuth.

Kornuth’s winning past didn’t save him in the present, as he was the first player knocked out. He got off to a rough start after Dmitry Yursov doubled through him on the very first hand. A few hands later Kornuth was sent packing by Andrew Lichtenberger whose A-Q was the top hand when another Ace hit on the flop. For sixth place Kornuth received $251,128.

Next to go was Petrangelo. He ended up in a race with Heath when he got all his chips in with Ah-Ks against Heath’s pocket Queens. The board delivered no help for Petrangelo and he was knocked out in fifth place collecting $335,181.

The final four battled for some time before Yursov was the next sent to the rail on a controversial hand. In the hand Sam Soverel opened for 400,000 and Yurasov pushed all-in. Heath asked for a count and after using up his entire time bank tossed in a time chip for an extra 30 seconds.

Soverel not catching that it was a time chip and not a bet, folded his hand out of turn. Heath now only facing Yursov quickly called. Heath had him dominated with A-Q versus A-10 and won when the board showed Jd-5c-Kh-3h-5h. Yursov walked away with $458,138 for fourth place.

Soverel was bounced next in third place. He ran into Heath’s A-K while holding K-J suited hearts. He received no help from the board and picked up $640,924.

It came down to heads-up between Heath and Andrew Lichtenberger. When heads-up play began Heath had the chip lead with 18.8 million chips to Lichtenberger’s 14.1 million. The two traded the chip leader a few times before Heath ended it.

On the final hand Lichtenberger went all-in preflop with Ad-Kh and Heath called with Ac-Js. A Jack on the flop gave Heath the lead. When no King materialized on the turn or river it was all over. For second place Lichtenberger cashed $917,232.