The Commerce Main Event final day ended after close to 9 hours as an old school name in the poker world emerged as the winner with Matt Salsberg capturing the ring and the $286,134 grand prize.
"This is very surreal. It's been kind of a crazy few years for me, so this is wild" he said as his initial thoughts after the final cards were dealt. "I have played a lot of circuit events of the years and have never won a ring, so it's nice to get one."
A WSOP circuit ring was one of the only things lacking in Salsberg's poker resume as he is a long time Commerce regular and plays many tournaments here. He also plays all over the LA area and has results dating back to 2004 but stated that the Commerce was a place that he in particular has played well at over the years with a few big scores in this location.
He is a popular figure among the Commerce regulars as many players gave him congratulations as he walked through the poker room after he collected his payout.
In total, he now has $3.4 million in total earnings, with this win being the 2nd largest of his career eclipsed only by a WPT win in Paris for $478,000 in 2012.
But Salsberg gave a succinct explanation of his strategy and his win. "It's a poker tournament, it's not that hard. Just have to sit here and win hands."
Outside of poker, Salsberg is also a renowned award-winning TV writer and producer.
Action of the Day
The final day of the Main Event began with 13 players left Salsberg starting out as the third largest stack. However, it would not be a day of smooth sailing for him as he actually dropped down to one of the shorter stacks and was at risk of going out early in the day.There were four quick eliminations to setup the final stream of nine players after about 2 hours of play.
Entering the final table of nine, Salsberg was the 6th largest stack with Samvell Gspoyan leading the way.
Phongthep Thiptinnakon was the first victim of the final table while Aram Mhkitaryan quickly followed. At this point, Davis Khoyber and Anthony Marquez would start to take control as the chip leaders.
Richard Ham was the next to go in 7th place and Samvel Gspoyan was unable to keep his big stack momentum going as he lost a big flip and never recovered from there to bow out in 6th place.
Luis Yepez went out next in 5th as his bid to win back to back WSOP circuit Main Events came up just short.
Four-handed play had a lot of chip movement as the four remaining players would trade chips and stacks for a while before Khobyer was eliminated in 4th place.
Michael Liang looked as though he was going to take control with a large lead at a few different parts of the final table, but his fortunes changed against Salsberg during three-handed play as Salsberg got the better of him a few times to eventually send Liang away in 3rd.
Heads-up play was very short as Marquez was at a significant chip disadvantage and could not cut into Salsberg's lead at all who was able to finish it off in the span of just a few hands.