Poker News Roundup: John Cynn, Brian Hastings, Ben Yu

online poker World Series of Poker WSOP John Cynn Main Event

The 2018 World Series of Poker, which started back in May, is coming to a conclusion. A number of big winners earned bracelets this week, including John Cynn, who won the highly coveted Main Event. Here’s a look back at three big winners from this weekend at the WSOP:

Cynn Captures 2018 WSOP Main Event

John Cynn has won the granddaddy of them all at the 2018 World Series of Poker, claiming the Main Event. As a result, he’s become richer to the tune of $8.8 million.

Cynn held off Tony Miles in the longest ever head-to-head round among the final two contestants. Cynn and Miles played a record 199 hands against each other, making it 442 hands necessary for Cynn to finish off the final table. In total, the two went head-to-head for more than 10 hours.

Miles tried to bluff his way through on the final hand as all he was holding was a queen-eight. Cynn had king-jack and saw two more kings come his way from the flop. An eight came out on the turn, which gave Miles some confidence and he went all-in. At that point, Cynn took his time – possibly slow-rolling a little bit – but eventually called and easily won. The river card was a four of spades, which didn’t impact the outcome.

Don’t feel too bad for Miles, though, as he’ll collect $5 million for his troubles.

Hastings Wins No. 76 H.O.R.S.E. Event

Brian Hastings outlasted a field of 354 entries to win the No. 76 event at the 2018 World Series of Poker, which was the $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event. As a result, he won $233,202 for his first-place result.

It was an up-and-down tournament for Hastings, who entered the final day as the chip leader but at one point was the shortest stack too. He rallied back to conquer the event. Andrew Brown finished in second, taking home $144,128, and Tim Marsters placed third, winning $97,340.

This now makes it the fourth WSOP gold bracelet victory for Hastings.

Yu Snags Third Career Bracelet

It’s been a successful 2018 World Series of Poker for Ben Yu, who isn’t typically known as a star on the no-limit hold’em circuit. However, he proved that he can still play by winning event No. 77 at the 2018 WSOP: the $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller. As a result, he took home a huge $1.6-million paycheck for his win.

Americans dominated the final table at this event with six of the eight players hailing from the United States, including four in the top five. Sean Winter placed second and was the only other person at this event to collect over a million with his $1,020,253 payday. Nick Petrangelo placed third and won $720,103, Isaac Haxton finished fourth and won $518,882 and Igor Kurganov – the lone non-American in the top five – finished fifth and won $381,874.

Yu outlasted a star-studded field of 31 players that included the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Scott Seiver and Sam Soverel.