“Relieved.”
This single word described how Colin Robinson felt as he celebrates his maiden World Series of Poker bracelet. He defeated Carl Shaw heads up to win Event #68: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em, in a blaze of glory.
“The biggest feeling is definitely relief. I came into the day fifth in chips and started out very poorly… Crap if I get out of the final two tables without making the final table it’ll be a little tragic. I’m gonna play my best and whatever happens happens. Today, I guess, was my day."
Robinson had been in this position before, having finished second in last year’s WSOP Monster Stack. He was rewarded with $718,649 for his effort there and today he takes home $667,963 of the $4,959,525 prize pool.
He attributes his prior experience to helping him overcome the final table today, recalling a hand in the Monster Stack run where he should have ripped it with Ax2x instead of just raising by 3 times and calling off. “Sometimes plays that seem like they are more variance are actually less.” Robinson added.
To get his first bracelet, Robinson had to fight through the 2,229 player field to win the event. The 23 players who returned on Day 3 had a combined 11 bracelets between them. Of those were such names as Nacho Barbero, and Mike Holtz, and Peter Park.
Robinson's poker journey started over 10 years ago as he learned to play poker near the end of high school with buddies. He reflected that they would mostly play sit and go formats. When he moved to California he started playing online and met other online players who would coach him and become close friends.
A long way to come to today where Robinson shared that “Once we got to four handed I felt very confident that I was gonna win. I was thinking some of [the other players] wanted to get some pay jumps. And I kind of just got the hands and was running good.”
He finished by stating that he’d save his closing remarks “for the next one.”
Event #68: $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Colin Robinson | United States | $667,963 |
| 2 | Carl Shaw | United Kingdom | $445,285 |
| 3 | John Reiter | United States | $325,744 |
| 4 | Vitalijs Zavorotnijs | Latvia | $240,707 |
| 5 | Barry Shulman | United States | $179,687 |
| 6 | Akshat Bajaj | Canada | $135,522 |
| 7 | Peter Park | United States | $103,279 |
| 8 | Gonzalo Almada | Argentina | $79,537 |
| 9 | Ivan Stankov | Bulgaria | $61,906 |
Day 3 Action
Day 3 began with 23 players remaining out of the starting field. The start of the day found multiple players doubling up before Michael Liang and David Guay fell. Eliminations continued sporadically as Jin Hoon Lee, Rui Ferreira, and Jose Rodriguez were rapidly eliminated.
As play resumed with only two tables, the pair of Michael Newman and Holtz hit the rail. A flurry of bustouts containing Gianluca Cedolia, Ari Shin, and David Dongwoo Ko brought the play to short handed on both tables.
Shortly after, a string of busts containing Alisson Piekazewicz, Andre Akkari, and Barbero brought play down to an unofficial final table.
Ky Nguyen then ended on the wrong side of aces bringing the action down to the final nine. Robinson sat third in chips as Shaw led the field. It was a deadlock for hours before Ivan Stankov fell in a flip. Three hours passed as short stacks seemed to always double and the field maintained its numbers.
Gonzalo Almada was the next person to face elimination being left short stack from the prior hand. Robinson then won a massive pot when he eliminated Park with Big Slick, and sat atop the remaining players with over a third of the chips in play.
Robinson continued his show of dominance as he felted Akshat Bajaj after being dominated before the flop. With over half of the chips in play, Robinson soon busted Barry Shulman and Vitalijs Zavorotnijs in rapid succession.
Within fifteen minutes the tournament would conclude as John Reiter ran into Robinson’s suited ace. Finally, Carl Shaw lost heads-up as Robinson found a four-card flush with his outkicked Queen to win the event.
That concludes PokerNews coverage of Event #68 $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Stay tuned for more updates from the 2024 WSOP.
