Mike Gorodinsky captures third WSOP bracelet

He lost his start-of-day chip lead briefly, but after getting it back, there was no stopping Mike Gorodinsky, as he sprinted away from the field at the final table of World Series of Poker Event #54: $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. Championship to earn his third WSOP bracelet along with the $422,747 first prize.

Gorodinsky defeated Alex Livingston in a very short heads-up match to cap his triumph over the field of 185 players that built a $1,720,500 prize pool.

Gorodinsky's victory Monday came much more quickly than it could have, given the talent of his opponents, but aside from that early bump, everything went his way from then on.

"The cards made it kind of easy,” said Gorodinsky. “I felt like I didn't really need to think about it much, to be honest. The cards just kind of fell in and then the stacks got to a point where I was able to maneuver kind of easily."

The win is especially satisfying for Gorodinsky, not just because it's his first major tournament victory since he won the Poker Players Championship in 2015, but because as he said himself, it's been a somewhat trying summer.

"I had kind of a rocky start to my summer, and my plan actually was if I didn't cash or go far in this tournament, I was going to fly home for a week and a half to recharge and spend some time with my wife. So, this run was kind of like an unexpected, really cool way to wrap up an otherwise long, tough month."
Part of that tough month was a situation at Bellagio where the contents of his private box were stolen. Gorodinsky provided an update on that situation.

"I'm still kind of waiting for quote-unquote 'official' word, but basically they ran a security process and according to them I'm the only person to access it, so compensation at this point is looking unlikely but I'm hoping to have further conversations with some execs at MGM," said Gorodinsky.

Getting back to his accomplishment Monday, Gorodinsky said that while wins in $10,000 and above fields are always difficult due to the quality of opponents, especially in the late stages, he started feeling that the tournament might be his late on Day 3.

"Wrapping up last night I kind of felt like I was getting momentum,” said Gorodinsky. “I felt pretty confident going into today, and obviously today was really fast and I felt pretty comfortable and confident the whole way."

It took just two hands to thin the field to six as Christopher Claassen fell in a big three-way Stud Hi-Lo pot that also saw Ruben take the chip lead from Gorodinsky. Carol Fuchs would be eliminated shortly after in the same round of Stud Hi-Lo with Brian Yoon the beneficiary of Fuchs' final chips.

Gorodinsky said that while the hand with Ruben didn't get his day off to a great start, it didn't shake his confidence going forward.

"Yah, that hand was not ideal, but no, just because everything just kind of rolled in after that,” said Gorodinksy. “There wasn't any kind of other setback, so it was pretty easy from that point on."

Gorodinsky's roll began with a big Limit Hold'em hand between himself and Scott Seiver, where both paired their aces, but Gorodinsky had Seiver outkicked. That renewed Gorodinsky's control of the chip lead, while Seiver was then on a short stack that he couldn't recover from, eventually falling in fifth place.

Gorodinsky then extended his lead with a big hand in Level 24 over Ruben and never looked back, leaving Ruben, Livingston, and Yoon to jockey for position in hopes of building enough of a stack to compete with Gorodinsky in a potential heads-up match.

Following a couple more hours without an elimination and Gorodinsky pulling further away, it was Yoon falling in fourth at the hands of the champion in a hand of Stud with two pair versus Gorodinsky's flush. Then not 20 minutes later, Ruben was taken out by Gorodinsky as well in Stud, setting up the short heads-up match versus Livingston, entering it with a nearly 10-1 chip lead.

The match lasted just a few hands, with Gorodinsky taking a quick Stud Hi-Lo hand to put himself on the brink of victory, and then finishing Livingston off just a couple of hands later to claim the title.

Final table results:
Place Player Country Prize
1 Mike Gorodinsky United States $422,747
2 Alex Livingston Canada $261,278
3 Brad Ruben United States $184,406
4 Brian Yoon United States $136,649
5 Scott Seiver United States $101,319
6 Carol Fuchs United States $76,412
7 Christopher Claassen United States $58,633