Maimone wins WSOP $1,500 Marathon

American Nick "rdcrsn" Maimone registered at GGPoker under a Canadian flag bested Brazil's Diego "JaxTeller" Bittar in heads-up play in the WSOP Event #69: $1,500 Marathon No Limit Hold'em to win the $302,472 top prize, an added WSOP Europe package valued at $15,000, and his first WSOP gold bracelet.

The tournament truly lived up to its name with the one-day event taking more than 13 1/2 hours from start to finish. Despite no guarantee, the turnout was huge with 1,438 entrants generating a massive $2,049,150 prize pool.

Maimone is no stranger to success despite never finding WSOP gold before today. In addition to his more than $2.1 million in live cashes according to The Hendon Mob, Maimone also was once ranked sixth in the world in online poker tournaments at PocketFives.

The win catapults Maimone over the $1 million mark in WSOP cashes with his best finish coming more than a decade ago when he took 15th place in the 2009 WSOP Main Event for $633,022.

After the four-hour late registration window was open, the field ballooned to 1,438 entrants with 504 remaining in their seats.

About 90 minutes later, the top 206 players were in the money for at least a min-cash of $3,243 after Roland "Gwriden" Rokita and Aleksei "JokerFace" Barkov hit the rail during the last hand of bubble action.

Six-time WSOP bracelet winner and GGPoker Ambassador Daniel Negreanu was among the players to make a deep run eventually hitting the rail in 86th place for $4,370 when his ace-queen couldn't get there against his opponent's big slick.

Ermo "PublicEnemy7" Kosk was cruising away and had the lead most of the time from 50 players left until the nine-max final table began. The final table began five hours after the money was reached once Kosk's jacks won a flip against Giovanni "harcos85" Petroni to send him to the rail in 10th place for $17,555.

Kosk had the lead to start the final table with Maimone kicking things off in sixth place. The lead shifted around many times between most of the players at the final table.

Bert "ILOVECATS" Stevens, Erik "FortySixand2" Lemarquand, and Murilo "RaiseBluff" Nascimento all hit the rail in succession to start the final table.

Kosk went from chip leader to crumbs after losing a pair of hands to Giovani "Mandjocka" Torre before Maimone sent him to the rail in sixth place.

Sebastian "Mustlaaaveit" Sikorski and Nikolay "PROMsGT" Motsenko both hit the rail within hands of each other to leave the action at three-handed play.

The lead bounced around between all three players before Torre found himself short after he jammed his queen-jack into Maimone's big slick. Maimone took the rest of Torre's stack when his queen-six got there against his opponent's king-nine.

Maimone began heads up play against Bittar with a negligible chip lead. The lead was extended to a 6:1 chip advantage before Bittar trimmed it to an approximate 3:1 chip advantage.

In the final hand of the tournament, Bittar limped from the button with ace-five before he called off for more than 20 big blinds after Maimone with king-eight. A king hit the board and Bittar had to settle for the handsome $228,212 top prize. Meanwhile congrats to Nick "rdcrsn" Maimone for winning his first WSOP gold bracelet.

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)