Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em, a newly scheduled event at this year’s World Series of Poker (WSOP) that saw players battling it out over four days from a starting field of 660 entries. The tournament concluded with Brent Hart emerging victorious, defeating Eddie Ochana in the heads-up battle to claim his maiden WSOP bracelet and a first-place prize of $660,284.
“It’s truly surreal,” Hart said to WSOP after his win. “I’m like floating right now.”
Hart faced a significant deficit at the beginning of the heads-up play, starting with almost one-tenth of the chips compared to Ochana. However, he applied the lessons he had learned throughout the event to turn the tide in his favor during the final stretch of the tournament.
“Sick field,” Hart commented. “Every table, I was like, ‘Wait a minute.’ And it was great because I was able to learn something every day. I was able to sit with seasoned players and pick up small nuances here and there, so it was a win-win.”
Hart had quite a decorated rail supporting him, including Ty Lue, a three-time NBA champion (twice as a player and once as a head coach) and current head coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, and a former NBA player Damon Jones.
“These are my dogs,” Hart said, pointing to his friends. “I’ve been playing poker with these guys since I started playing poker, so it feels good to do it in front of them. It feels good to do this with them here because they’re all great poker players. I might be the worst one out of the group.”
With this win, Hart now crosses $1.5 million in live tournament earnings. His previous best result was at the Venetian DeepStack Extravaganza in 2022, where he earned $166,462 for a second-place finish.
The event also featured a dramatic moment with poker Hall of Famer Erik Seidel, who was knocked out in 21st place. Both holding flushes, Seidel and Sami Bechahed were all-in on the Q♦10♠2♠J♠ turn. Seidel had the bigger flush with Q♠4♠ against Bechahed’s 9♠7♠, but the Frenchman hit his one outer 8♠ on the river to knock out the ten-time WSOP bracelet winner in a disgusting fashion.
Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 |  Brent Hart | United States | $660,284 |
| 2 | Eddie Ochana | United States | $440,202 |
| 3 | Alexander Queen | United States | $309,128 |
| 4 |  Kartik Ved | India | $220,373 |
| 5 | Shant Marashlian | United States | $159,517 |
| 6 | Daniyal Gheba | United States | $117,271 |
| 7 | Taylor Black | United States | $87,582 |
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Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Recap
41 players started Day 3 of Event #16: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em, and the last seven players bagged and tagged their chips for the final day of play after Krasimir Yankov was knocked out in eighth place by Eddie Ochana. Ochana brought a big stack into Day 4 with 71 big blinds, followed by Alexander Queen with 44 big blinds and Brent Hart with 42 big blinds. Everyone else had 15 big blinds or less, and the fight for money ladders began.
Taylor Black was the first to be eliminated after a good night’s sleep. He went all-in with ace-eight but was crushed by Shant Marashlian’s ace-nine, which held with the help of a nine on the flop.
While others were fighting for scraps, Ochana kept building his stack and had half of the chips in play, with only Hart keeping pace with him.
Daniyal Gheba was unlucky as his pocket tens ran into the pocket aces of Alexander Queen, and the board provided no salvation, knocking Gheba out in sixth place. Soon after, Ochana added a few more chips to his stack by eliminating Marashlian, who couldn’t get away from the 10♥3♠ on the big blind with only two big blinds. Ochana showed 7♣5♦, and the flop was 7♠6♠8♦, putting Ochana in the lead but still, many ways for Marashlian to win the pot and avoid elimination. The K♠ on the turn also provided a flush draw, but the river J♣ was a blank.
Ochana was on a roll, and nothing seemed to stop him from winning his first bracelet. He knocked out two more players, first Kartik Ved with king-five against ace-nine with a five on the flop, and then Queen with ace-six against queen-jack, with the board missing and ace-high taking it down.
Heads-up started with Eddie Ochana having a more than 9:1 lead over Brent Hart, but Hart managed to double up in the first hand. Another couple of pots went Hart’s way, and then a crucial double-up occurred when both players flopped a flush draw on J♠Q♥3♥, and all the chips went into the middle. Hart showed K♥2♥ for a higher draw than Ochana’s 10♥7♥. The turn and river missed, and Hart took the lead, a lead that he never lost.
After an extended break that didn’t shift the momentum, Hart sealed the deal. Ochana pushed all-in with K♦3♥, and Hart called with K♣J♦. The flop put Ochana ahead with a pair of threes on 10♥6♦3♦. The turn was 4♠, but the river J♥ propelled Hart to the top, winning his first bracelet and the $660,284 prize.
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* Images and hands courtesy of WSOP and PokerNews
