Victor Ramdin won the Big Event’s Main Event on Thursday at the Bicycle Casino, defeating friend and fellow PokerStars pro Joe Hachem heads-up to collect a first place prize of $500,000. Ramdin bested a field of 417 players and nearly went wire-to-wire for the title after amassing a sizable chip lead on Day 2 and entering the final table second in chips.
The tournament was a major success even after the PokerStars North American Poker Tour pulled its branding following discussions with California gaming regulators. The Bicycle Casino renamed the tournament The Big Event. The series’ Main Event had a $5,000 buy-in, generated a prize pool of $1,921,327, and drew some of the biggest names in the game including Daniel Negreanu, Yevgeniy Timoshenko, Jason Mercier, Joe Cada, Jennifer Tilly, and actor Jason Alexander.
Following five days of play, Las Vegas pro Jeremy Ausmus led the way going into the final table with just over four million in chips. He was followed by Ramdin (2.2 million), Taylor von Kriegenbergh (1.81 million), Hachem (1.66 million), Bryan Leskowitz (1.1 million), Santiago Nadal (943,000), Jose Noronha (568,000), and short-stacked Govert Metaal, who snuck into the final eight with 149,000 in chips.
The two PokerStars pros got busy right off the bat. First, Ramdin sent Nadal home in eighth place when his A-K outran the pocket jacks of Nadal. Then it was Hachem taking control, eliminating Noronha in seventh place when his pocket kings held up against Noronha’s sevens. Hachem then sent Metaal packing in sixth place, winning a coin flip with A-Q against Metaal’s pair of fives.
After Ausmus eliminated Leskowitz in fifth, Hachem got his hands dirty again by removing Kriegenbergh. Hachem called Kriegenbergh’s re-shove with A-Q, which held up against Kriegenbergh’s K-10 to leave Hachem and Ramdin chasing Ausmus for the chip lead.
Then, Ausmus’ good fortune ran dry. After losing his lead, he called Hachem’s all-in bet with J-9 for his tournament life on a K-J-6 board with two spades. Hachem turned over K-7 and his top pair finished best to send Ausmus to the rail with $190,000. That set up a heads-up match between the two well-known pros.
Hachem began play with the chip advantage, but the momentum quickly swayed in Ramdin’s favor after he flopped a straight against Hachem’s top pair and open-ended straight draw. That doubled Ramdim’s stack and he never looked back. On the final hand of the match, Hachem got his remaining chips in pre-flop with A-K against Ramdin’s A-J, but the board ran out A-J-8-10-2 to give Ramdin two pair and the title.
The victory was the largest for Ramdin since he won the World Poker Tour’s Foxwoods Poker Classic in 2006 for $1,331,889. He posted his thoughts on Twitter following Thursday’s victory: “Yippee, it’s finally over. Thanks for all your support. I beat World Champion Joe Hachem (my buddy) to win $5K event at the Bike.”
Hachem, who was celebrating his birthday, took home $300,000 to increase his lifetime winnings to $11.1 million. The Aussie’s last major final table appearance came at the Aussie Millions in January, where he took fifth in a $5,000 Pot Limit Omaha event.
Here’s a look at the final table results of the Main Event of the Bicycle Casino’s Big Event:
1. Victor Ramdin – $500,000
2. Joe Hachem – $300,000
3. Jeremy Ausmus – $190,000
4. Taylor von Kriegenbergh – $140,000
5. Bryan Leskowitz – $100,000
6. Govert Metaal – $75,000
7. Jose Noronha – $55,000
8. Santiago Nadal – $35,327
The action isn’t quite finished at the Bike. And neither is Ramdin. Just a day after winning the Main Event, the Guyana-born pro reached the final table of the $10,000 buy-in Bounty Shootout that will get underway on Saturday at 2:00pm PT.
There, Ramdin will battle Jonathan Duhamel, Alex Keating, Pat Walsh, John Smith, Joe Tehan, Matt Woodward, Ali Eslami, and Shane Schleger for the winner-take-all prize of $171,000. The event will be televised by ESPN in May.
