Salas Overcomes Large Chip Deficit To Take Down Title

Published on January 4th, 2020 12:36 pm EST

The World Series of Poker Main Event World Champion was officially crowned on Sunday.

Damian Salas overcame a large chip deficit to defeat Joseph Hebert.

As a result, Salas is now officially the "World Series of Poker Main Event World Champion". Salas took home an additional $1 million for winning the heads-up match, plus he'll take home the World Series of Poker main event bracelet.

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The journey to become the 2020 champion wasn't an easy one for Salas.

After qualifying for the WSOP main event (International) final table on GGPoker, Salas needed to make the long trip from Buenos Aires to the Czech Republic, which isn't the easiest thing to do in this COVID-19 world.

After taking down the final table at King's Resort in Rozvadov, Salas and his family then had to travel from the Czech Republic to the United States. There were issues getting into the United States, and the heads-up match had to be delayed as a result.

Now, after taking down the heads-up match, Salas and his family will need to make the final leg of his trip back home to Buenos Aires.

In total, Salas did tens of thousands of mile of travelling to make the events, though it was all worth it.

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The World Series of Poker main event ended up with a total of 1,379 entrants - 705 on WSOP.com and an additional 674 on GGPoker.

In total, the prize pool was $13,238,000, plus an additional $1 million for the winner of the heads-up match.

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The heads-up match between Salas and Hebert took over 170 hands and 6 hours to complete.

After a back-and-forth battle, the end came when Hebert pushed all-in pre-flop holding A-Q.

Salas decided to call with his K-J, and received some very good news on the flop when a King came.

Salas' lead held and he was declared this year's WSOP main event World Champion.

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The poker world is now looking ahead to late May, which is when the next World Series of Poker would normally get underway in Las Vegas.

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Filed Under: The World Series of Poker