Conquistador rules: Mateos beats Kenney for $4.3M and sixth WSOP bracelet

C&S (Citizens & Scholars) will certainly hope so – Einhorn was playing for them today. And his fiance Natalie was hoping so as well. Speaking from the rail, she said it was 'exciting and nerve-wracking,' and that she was shaking while watching him. 

Einhorn is playing purely for the bracelet – it would be his first – and talking ahead of the final table, he said, "It's going to be a fun day. These guys are very skilled, there's no one that doesn't know what they're doing. If I have any advantage, which I really don't... I'm just playing a game. For these guys, it's their livelihood."

Three-way action cripples Wilson

We didn't have to wait long for the first defining pot of the final table.

Wilson raised to 800K from the cut-off with jacks, Mateos three-bet to 4.225M from the small blind with , effectively putting Wilson all-in, and Winter committed his remaining 3.95M chips from the big blind with .

It would be a double elimination if Mateos found a way to win and the flop was about as good as he could have hoped for. 

However, the runout gave Winter the 12,250,000 pot and left Wilson on fumes. He was eliminated by Koon a couple of hands later.

Viewers might not have had Ivey to entertain them but the final table was action-packed. 

After an hour, Mullur jammed his last 10 big blinds with and ran into Mateos in the big blind with . Mullur turned trip nines but the gave the pot to the Spanish pro with a flush on the river. 

Samuel Mullur held the chip lead through Day 2 but was eliminated in sixth on the final table.

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Time for the conquistador

Einhorn was holding his own in an elite field. 

In fact, according to Jared Bleznick in the commentary booth, he'd "played perfect poker for two days."

That's some praise for what Einhorn calls a hobby. 

Koon played pretty perfectly as well but it didn't stop him from hitting the rail in fifth. He shoved with and was called by Mateos with pocket tens. Kenney folded an ace and a ten, and the board didn't improve either player. 

Mateos was ready for lift-off. He picked up aces and eliminated Winter, who held , in fourth.

Sean Winter was eliminated in fourth after he ran into Adrian Mateos and his aces.

And then came the mistake from Einhorn. It only takes one when you're playing no-limit hold'em.

Kenney called from the small blind with and Einhorn was happy to see a flop with .

Unfortunately, that flop was . Einhorn had an open-ended draw. Kenney already had the straight. 

Kenney checked, Einhorn bet 1 million and Kenney raised to 3.7 million. Einhorn made it 9 million, Kenney jammed and Einhorn made the call. The pot was the biggest of the tournament so far – 47,950,000. 

Kenney had him covered and there was no salvation on the turn or river.

Perfect poker for almost three days, and then one mistake — no-limit hold'em is a tough game.

Heads-up between two of the best

With that last pot, Kenney had a sizeable advantage when heads-up started: 84 to 55 big blinds.

They played a 40 million chip pot almost immediately and it flipped the chip lead to Mateos.

With the board reading and Kenney holding two eights, he slid out a bet of 14 million. GTO Wizard recommended checking 100% of the time and Kenney would like to get that decision back. 

Mateos had turned a straight with and called to take a 53M-to-31M chip lead.

Bryn Kenney and Adrian Mateos playing heads-up – between them they have over $150 million in tournament earnings.

The winning hand came shortly after, and Mateos did it with the Brunson.

He had and hit top two on the flop. Kenney had and all the money went in.

The runout gave Mateos the title, $4.3 million, and his sixth WSOP bracelet.

He won his first bracelet at 19, became the youngest player to win three, and now, at 31, is the youngest player ever to win six WSOP bracelets.

"For the last two days I've told the world he is the best no-limit hold'em player on planet Earth," Bleznick said breathlessly. "He just defeated the all-time money winner in Bryn Kenney."

$250K Super High Roller results

1. Adrian Mateos (Spain) – $4,334,411
2. Bryn Kenney (USA) – $2,776,634
3. David Einhorn (USA) – $1,862,941
4. Sean Winter (USA) – $1,312,017
5. Jason Koon (USA) – $972,375
6. Samuel Mullur (Austria) – $760,417
7. Brandon Wilson (USA) - $629,397
8. Phil Ivey (USA) – $553,270
9. Michael Moncek (USA) – $518,518