The World Series of Poker Europe is nothing but a blip in our memory after Jack Sinclair beats Laszlo Bujtas, heads-up, to take the €1.2m first prize in the €10,350 Main Event.
Jack Sinclair is human.
I know this because, when I asked Espen Uhlen Jørstad who he would surround himself with if he could only pick five people, the name of Sinclair came up in conversation.
“It would have to be someone funny, like Jack Sinclair,” said the Unibet Ambassador before continuing, “I loved watching him win it. He’s a better poker player than me, but he’s human.”
It seems Sinclair is also inspirational.
I’m not saying that Sinclair came from poker’s equivalent of Skid Row, but when he made the final table of the 2017 WSOP Main Event I had no idea who he was.
It turns out that it was his first Vegas visit before which, Sinclair had only made the money of a live event once (finishing 161st in the partypoker MILLIONS UK Main Event for $9,412).
Sinclair would go on to finish eighth in the WSOP Main Event for $1.2m, and he was no longer the worm hidden inside the apple’s core, he was peeling the rind off some of the biggest tournaments in the world including winning a €25,000 Super High Roller at the partypoker German Poker Championships for €250,000, finishing 16/132 in the €111,111 One Drop High Roller for $206,980, and winning a side event at the Aussie Millions for $102,033.
And a little over one year later, he has nailed another one.
A big one.
Jack Sinclair has won the 2018 WSOPE Main Event. The British star conquered a field of 534 entrants to bank the first prize of €1,122,239, and become the second player from the UK to win the event after James Bord in 2010.
Sinclair came into the final table fourth in chips and without the undue hassle of the limelight. The former WSOP Main Event champion, Ryan Riess, had that pleasure as he tried to become the second player to win both the WSOP and WSOPE Main Event after Phil Hellmuth achieved the feat in 2012.
But it wasn’t to be the day for the beast.
A card-dead Riess got it in with pocket sevens, only for pocket aces to beat the crap out of them, sending the former world champion to the rail in fourth place.
Sinclair won the most populous WSOPE Main Event in history after beating Laszlo Bujtas, heads-up. The pair began with even stacks before Bujtas took the early lead when Sinclair flopped top pair and paid off a turned straight.
Sinclair fought back like the earthy soldier he is to draw level and then took the lead after finding Bujtas’ fingers in the cookie jar. Once Sinclair was in pole position he zoomed ahead. Bujtas doubled up twice on death’s door, but Sinclair finally nailed him to the mast when his Q9 defeated J7 for all of the chips in the world.
Here are the final table results:
Final Table Results
1. Jack Sinclair – €1,122,239
2. Laszlo Bujtas – €693,573
3. Krasimir Yankov – €480,028
4. Ryan Riess – €337,778
5. Milos Skrbic – €241,718
6. Ihor Yerofieiev – €175,965
Three other stars who almost figured out the machinations of this thing were Vladimir Troyanovskiy (11th), Andy Black (13th) and Igor Kurganov (22nd).
