“The biggest feeling is definitely relief.” That was how Colin Robinson described his feelings after winning his first bracelet in the $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em event and it was clear to see on his face after the win.
He had a hill to climb coming into the day 5th in chips, and he put a lot of pressure on himself to do right by his final day stack. “Crap if I get out of the final two tables without making the final table it’ll be a little tragic. I’m gonna play my best and whatever happens happens. Today, I guess, was my day.”
The game saw 2,229 entries for a prize pool just shy of $5 million. The winner was set to pocket $667,963 with 7 of the final 9 players expecting a six-figure payout.
Final Table Payouts for Event #68: $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em
| Place | Player | Home | Prize ($USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Colin Robinson | United States | $667,963 |
| 2 |  Carl Shaw | United Kingdom | $445,285 |
| 3 | John Reiter | United States | $325,744 |
| 4 |  Vitalijs Zavorotnijs | Latvia | $240,707 |
| 5 | Barry Shulman | United States | $179,687 |
| 6 |  Akshat Bajaj | Canada | $135,522 |
| 7 | Peter Park | United States | $103,279 |
| 8 |  Gonzalo Almada | Argentina | $79,537 |
| 9 | Ivan Stankov | Bulgaria | $61,906 |
Robinson Goes One Better Than Last Year
It seems to have only been a matter of time for Colin Robinson to secure his first WSOP bracelet. He almost managed the feat last year when he went deep in the Monster Stack, only to come one place short of the ultimate prize with a second-place finish worth $718,649.
That second from last year was a bit chunkier, money-wise at least, than this year’s win worth $667,963, but it’s pretty easy to see how the gold bracelet might help make up for a slightly smaller prize. The American Robinson battled British player Carl Shaw after taking down a final table that included Barry Shulman, Canada’s Akshat “Danny” Bajaj, and Peter Park.
It took a bit less than four hours on the final day of play to go from the 23 returning players down to the 10-handed final table. Nacho Barbero brought the biggest stack into the final day but ultimately he would be unable to run that up to his second bracelet, falling in 11th place to bubble the unofficial final table.
The final ten players took a bit longer to decide, with play continuing for more than 6 hours before Robinson emerged victorious. It didn’t take long for Ky Nguyen to head off to the cage for 10th place, but it would be more than two more hours of play before runner-up Shaw dispatched Ivan Stankov in 9th place.
The slow pace continued with action proceeding for another three hours before Argentinian Gonzalo Almada got his short stack in under the gun with a dominated ten against Shaw. That seemed to set off a firestorm as Park, Bajaj, and Shulman all fell in short order to bring it down to four left.
Bajaj had a particularly painful exit for 6th place. He got his final 9.5 million in for a great spot with ace-king over ace-queen, but the red-hot Robinson spiked his queen on the turn to send the Canadian out in 6th for the biggest score of his live poker career.
It was really a sprint to the finish at that point. Following Shulman out the door in short order were Vitalijs Zavorotnijs and John Reiter, setting up the heads-up battle between Robinson and Shaw. Robinson had a huge lead of 66 million to 11 million at that point, and Shaw wasn’t able to overcome the massive deficit.
The final hand, which happened shortly after players returned from a break before heads-up began, saw Shaw get his money in with the best queen, but Robinson was on a sun-run and ran out to the biggest four-card club flush with queen over ten. The win pushed Robinson’s lifetime earnings to nearly $2.2 million.
