Veteran tournament grinder Martin Zamani has become the latest pro to mine World Series of Poker bracelet gold. The player took down Event #19, PLO Crazy Eights, during the ongoing WSOP Online series. Zamani, playing as "bathroomline", earned $92,598 and his first-ever bracelet in this $888 buy-in event.
Zamani's win came after an 11-hour battle that ended early on Tuesday. He emerged from a loaded final table that included five former bracelet winners, led by Loren Klein's four such wins. Other former WSOP winners in the final included Joe Cheong, Ryan DePaulo, Arkadiy Tsinis, and Jose "Nacho" Barbero.
Klein, a seven-card stud specialist, had four previous WSOP bracelet wins. to his name DePaulo, of course, earned a special kind of fame in the 2020 WSOP Online series, when he won his own first bracelet while playing from his car in a Whole Foods grocery parking lot. In an oddity, however, all five previous bracelet winners exited in spots eight through four, guaranteeing a new winner here.
Zamani, eventual runner-up Shawn Stroke, and third-place finisher John Del Rossi were left to battle for the title. All three players took turns in the lead before Zamani bounced Del Rossi. Zamani claimed the win soon after in a hand where his pocket aces held up against Stroke's pocket kings.
Zamani adds to string of WSOP Online cashes
The win marked Zamani's ninth cash of the WSOP Online series in just 19 events played to date. The nice cash also swelled his recorded lifetime tourney earnings to nearly $2.7 million. Over $900,000 of that has come in various WSOP events, including a WSOP Circuit ring triumph in early 2020.
Zamani, a native of Boca Raton, Florida who now lives in Las Vegas, is a popular pro who always seems to be getting into interesting life situations both at and away from the tables. A few months ago, he created a website to out a fellow pro who he claimed had reneged on a $30,000 loan. He also once reported being "shook down" by a security guard in the Bahamas, at a PokerStars-sponsored poker event, when he went outside to smoke pot on a break.
And speaking of weed (which is legal in his home state of Nevada), there's this classic Zamani Twitter post from 2018:
Featured image source: bay101news.com
