Today is an important day as football is hours away from having its new World Cup champion, Novak Djokovic just sealed his fourth Wimbledon title, and the World Series of Poker crowned its own brand new champion mere hours ago. John Cynn was the final man standing from a field of 7,874 entries to become this year’s World Championship victor.

The player survived a grueling 10-hour heads-up match against Tony Miles to eventually claim the prestigious title and the $8.8 million first-place prize and the champion’s gold bracelet that go along with it. While Cynn was unable to say how his life will change now as he is nearly nine million dollars richer, the 2018 Main Event champion said that he was happy he would be able to help his family and parents and that the money would certainly make things easier for him.

Winning the major tournament was not an easy task. Cynn had to survive ten days of action, which culminated into an epic battle that lasted more than ten hours. The duel between Cynn and Miles actually became the longest ever played within the Main Event, beating Qui Nguyen and Gordon Vayo’s match in 2016.

It was ten hours and 199 hands of chips and the chip lead swinging back and forth between Cynn and Miles. The two players showed great poker skill and composure, but in the end it was Cynn who outlasted the whole field. Here it is important to note that this year’s WSOP Main Event was the second-largest ever in the history of the popular poker series.

The final day of the Main Event kicked off Saturday afternoon at the Amazon poker room of Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. There were three players left in contention at the time when cards were thrown in the air, those three being Cynn, Miles, and Michael Dyer.

Miles led the pack of three with 238.9 million in chips. Cynn was second in chips at the time with 128.7 million, while Dyer was trailing far behind his opponents with 26.2 million. The player eventually hit the rail in third place for $3.75 million in prize money.

Given the nature of the event, it was well expected that heads-up would be a long ordeal. However, hardly anyone was probably prepared for what would next happen at the poker table where the two 2018 Main Event finalists sat.

Miles and Cynn were nearly even in chips at the beginning of their epic match, with Miles holding a very slight chip lead. The next ten hours would see that lead changing hands on numerous occasions as none of the two players was ready to let go of the opportunity to capture the most prestigious poker title without a good fight.

Following 199 hands of heads-up play and 442 hands of final table play, the name of the winner became known at around 5 am local time. The final table dealt in this year’s Main Event saw Cynn betting 9 million from the button and Miles raising to 34 million from the big blind, which Cynn called.

The [Kh][Kd][5h] landed on the flop to see Miles bet 32 million and Cynn call. The turn card was the [8d]. Miles moved all in for 114 million while Cynn gave it some thought before calling and tabling [Kc][Jc]. Miles was drawing dead with his [Qc][8h]. The [4s] appeared on the river to seal it for Cynn. Miles hit the rail for a hefty consolation prize of $5 million.

While the 2018 Main Event runner-up said he was disappointed that he did not claim the title, he praised Cynn saying that he would be a great champion. Cynn himself spoke equally high of his final opponent.

The post John Cynn Claims 2018 WSOP Main Event Title after Grueling Heads-Up Against Tony Miles appeared first on Casino News Daily.