Timur Margolin from Israel became the latest member of the WSOP’s club of gold bracelet winners. The player bested a pack of 1,248 tournament entries in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em or Event #43 on the schedule of this year’s edition of the series.

Margolin collected a hefty payout of $507,274 in addition to his first shiny WSOP gold bracelet. The player emerged as the victor after roller coaster four days and after clashing against some of poker’s big names, including six-time WSOP bracelet winner Chris Ferguson who has been making quite a comeback on the live tournament scene after a five-year hiatus.

The player disappeared from the felt after being indicted for his involvement with the Full Tilt Poker and for allegedly running a Ponzi scheme that saw nearly $450 million in customer money being paid out to directors and owners of the poker room. It took seven years before Ferguson finally addressed the issue and offered an apology to those affected.

In the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament, Ferguson finished fourth for $161,371. The player was denied a seventh WSOP gold piece namely by the event’s eventual winner. Margolin won a massive pot against Ferguson during four-handed play. It took the Israeli poker pro just a few more hands to send Ferguson to the rail.

Margolin’s road to victory was quite bumpy, particularly on the final day of play. Action was supposed to take place over three days, but was extended into an additional fourth one. That last day of play started with six remaining hopefuls. They were led by Ferguson who held 5.68 million in chips when cards were thrown in the air. Margolin was second in chips at the time with 3.52 million.

Ismael Bojang with 2.61 million, Michael Marder with 1.765 million, Dylan Linde with 1.33 million, and Ryan Laplante with 700,000 were the other four players still in contention.

Day 4 action saw the chip lead exchange hands on multiple occasions. The start-of-the-day field ultimately got whittled down to just two survivors, Margolin and Bojang. The duel began with the former holding a massive chip advantage over the latter. Margolin had accumulated a stack of nearly 12 million by that point to his last opponent’s 3.68 million.

Bojang did not waste time once the match began and quickly doubled up to reduce his disadvantage. He then emerged as the chip leader just as quickly and extended his lead methodically.

However, Margolin regained his momentum and retook the lead within the span of just a couple of hands. The player’s hardships were far from over, though, as Bojang scooped the lead once again a few hands later. It seemed that the mad race would never end.

The chip lead was swinging back and forth and then again, until Margolin reclaimed it one final time to never look back. Hand #158 was the final one to be played at the final table and the 23rd to be played within the heads-up match between Margolin and Bojang.

It saw Bojang shove for 4.41 million pre-flop with [Ac][2c] and Margolin snap-call with [Kc][Qs]. The board ran out [Ks][5s][4s][Qh][8d] to help Margolin claim the title and send his final opponent to the rail for a consolation prize of $313,444.

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