It took three days for 1,138 players to play down to a final five in the $5,000 No Limit Hold’em 6-Handed event. With two of those five hailing from the United Kingdom — Niall ‘Firaldo’ Farrell (below) and Brandon Sheils — we expected to see something of a rowdy rail.
The noise would come, but like the first elimination of the day on a delicately poised final table, it would take a while. Matthew Zambanini led the pack to start the day, with Sheils, Farrell and France’s Adrien Delmas holding decent stacks and Andjelko Andrejevic bringing up the rear.
A slow start
With a huge $855,515 up top, the five got the action going with a note of caution in the air. It would take some four hours for the first casualty of the day to register, and to the dismay of the growing British contingent on the rail — and the growing collection of beers — it was a confrontation that involved both Brits, and put paid to the hopes of one of them.
Sheils and Farrell went to war each holding an ace, holding fairly even stacks. Sheils had the edge with 
while Farrell needed some help, holding 
. The Scot was looking for a deuce or some hearts, and he got both on a flop of 
. The 
runout brought no solace for the unfortunate Sheils, who has close to $2M in tournament earnings but is still looking for ‘the big one’.
“It’ll come,” Farrell said as he hugged his friend goodbye, returning to a stack now better equipped to do some damage.
Gathering speed
The British rail — including such luminaries as Chris Moorman and Scotland’s #2 ranked player Ludovic Geilich — now had just one man to get behind, as did a growing crowd of French supporters cheering on Delmas. Meanwhile, the two American players remaining did their best to block out the cheers from both sets of fans.
While it took hours to lose the day’s first player, things would quickly pick up pace once the event was down to four. Having managed to win a preflop all-in holding 
versus the pocket queens of Farrell, Zambanini would soon run into a corner from which he couldn’t escape.
Andrejevic limped in the small blind, Zambanini checked and the flop brought 
. After Andrejevic checked, Zambanini liked his 
enough to shove his last 12 big blinds. Andrejevic, though, had flopped trips with 
and snap-called. The runout did nothing to help Zambanini and we were down to three.
A fast finish
With the chip lead, Andrejevic opened up the throttle and started piling on the pressure. It would not take long to thin the field yet further, and it would be Farrell, Scotland’s #1, who would be next to fall.
Playing off a short stack, Farrell shoved from the small blind, his 
looking to pick up the blinds. Instead he found a call from Delmas, holding 
. The board brought no help, and the man known as ‘Firaldo’ was out in 3rd with $398,409, the fourth-highest score of his career.
Down to two, the heads-up battle was a parody of the early phase of the day. Where it took four hours to go from five players to four, it took just a single hand to go from two to one.
Delmas had 
, Andrejevic 
. The man from France put Andrejevic to a decision preflop with a limp-raise over the latter’s 4bb open. After a few minutes’ thought, Andrejevic made the call.
The overpair was a 81% favorite and had both suits covered. Good thing too, as the 
board brought four hearts, and the man who started the day in last place was the last one standing.
The all-time money winner from Serbia — by way of Florida — Andrejevic landed his first WSOP bracelet and a payday of $855,515.
“I just tried to stay in there,” Andrejevic told PokerOrg, “just like I try to do every tournament, and navigate the final table. Sometimes the cards go fast and sometimes slow. I caught a hot run of cards and it worked out today.”
$5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed — Final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Andjelko Andrejevic |
$855,515 |
| 2 | Adrien Delmas |
$570,284 |
| 3 | Niall Farrell |
$398,409 |
| 4 | Matthew Zambanini |
$282,471 |
| 5 | Brandon Sheils |
$203,292 |
| 6 | Marius Gierse |
$148,548 |
