A former online poker heads-up specialist, whom many poker insiders pegged because the next big thing, lived as much as all of the lofty expectations on the 2016 World Series of Poker on Wednesday night.
Detroit native and University of Georgia economics grad Ankush Mandavia won Event #48: $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo, collecting a career-best $548,139 in first-place prize money and his first WSOP bracelet.
Final Table Results
| 1 | Ankush Mandavia | Kennesaw, GA | $548,139 |
| 2 | Daniel Strelitz | Torrance, CA | $338,774 |
| 3 | Christian Nilles | Germany | $232,934 |
| 4 | Thiago Macedo | Ponta Grossa, Brazil | $162,924 |
| 5 | Pedro Oliveira | Portugal | $115,957 |
| 6 | Sean Getzwiller | Las Vegas, NV | $84,004 |
| 7 | Sergey Lebedev | Troitsk, Russia | $61,964 |
| 8 | Phil Hellmuth | Palo Alto, CA | $46,553 |
| 9 | Kyle Julius | Naperville, IL | $35,636 |
"I've had numerous live deep runs and this sort of thing, but I never really closed the deal, and not got it done until now, so it's really gratifying," Mandavia said. "It feels really good."
Mandavia built his reputation within the poker world competing in probably the most highest stakes heads-up games online, taking over fierce competition and posting winning results.
Despite a few deep runs in heads-up events on the WSOP, decent scores at the tournament trail, and a contemporary penchant for turning up in high-roller events across the globe, Mandavia hasn't exactly created a household name for himself within the poker world.
Then, in January of this year, in the course of the inaugural Global Poker League Draft, Daniel Negreanu pegged him as a one among his top prospects for the fledgling league.
Mandavia wasn't drafted, but that sort of praise from a Poker Hall of Fame member like Negreanu instantly made him a player to observe going forward. Mandavia, who started playing the sport in college and maintains an overly close relationship along with his family, also counts a ton of top young pros nearly as good friends, and have been humbled by the entire support and sort words he's heard from the community as a whole.
"It feels amazing to have people supporting you and those believing in you," he said. "IT IS A great feeling."
Even with the entire poker world expecting him to have a breakout win, Mandavia, who said he switched his focus from heads-up online play to live tournaments three years ago, maintained a deep deal with playing his own game, and letting the chips fall where they may.
"I just gave it my best and regardless of the results were I USED TO BE going to live with them," he said. "It just happened to be a bracelet this time, that's amazing, so I'm happy."
Trying on his WSOP bracelet for the first actual time, Mandavia looked back at the road he traveled to get here with a way of pride, and an understanding that even in a skill game where luck plays an important role, labor pays off.
"I ran unbelievably to get here and i am more or less thankful for that," Mandavia said. "It took a very long time to determine numerous things live. Jumping in from the start I roughly thought I knew what I USED TO BE doing, but I SPOTTED I ACTUALLY didn't. I needed to make numerous adjustments, and it took a very long time to adjust, but I FEEL I HAVE the hang of this now and hopefully more results will come my way going forward."
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