■ Joseph Hebert held a chip lead over Damian Salas as of 10 p.m. in the World Series of Poker Main Event heads-up finale.
American Hebert holds lead over Argentine Salas
Joseph Hebert and Damian Salas don’t speak the same language, but they share a determined style of poker.
That meant that the World Series of Poker Main Event champion still hadn’t been decided late Sunday at the Rio.
As of 10 p.m., Hebert held a chip lead over Salas in the heads-up finale of the Main Event, the $10,000 buy-in No-limit Hold’em Championship. The winner was set to receive the trophy bracelet and $1 million on top of the about $1.55 million each received for winning their portions of the Main Event.
Hebert, 38, a poker pro from Metairie, Louisiana, speaks English, and Salas, a 45-year-old lawyer from Argentina, speaks Spanish and used an interpreter Sunday.
“I don’t consider a language barrier in poker,” Hebert said before the match. “I think it’s going to be the same game I’ve been playing for 10 years.”
Salas said: “Poker has a universal language.”
The Main Event was played in a hybrid online/live format this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. Because of U.S. online poker laws, two tournaments had to be held, one for U.S. players on WSOP. com and one for international players on Ggpoker.
A total of 1,379 players entered the Main Event. Hebert prevailed in a field of 705 in the U.S. portion, and Salas beat a field of 674 in the international portion. The tournaments were played online until the final tables of nine were reached. Hebert won the U.S. final table Dec. 28 at the Rio. Salas won the international final table Dec. 15 in Rozvadov, Czech Republic.
Hebert and Salas had to wait even longer than expected for their final match. They were scheduled to play Wednesday, but Salas reportedly had trouble getting into the
U.S. because of coronavirus travel
protocols.
Hebert extended his stay at the Rio, and Salas eventually got to Las Vegas for Sunday’s showdown.
“Normally when you win a tournament for $1.5 million you can celebrate a little bit,” Hebert said jokingly.
The players started with equal 500,000 chip stacks Sunday. They battled mostly evenly through the first 70 hands, then Hebert won a monster pot with trip kings to build a 3-1 chip lead. Hebert extended the lead to about 9-1, then Salas doubled up all in before the flop with ace-deuce vs. Hebert’s king-five.
Salas got whittled down again, but stayed alive with pocket tens allin before the flop against Hebert’s king-nine.
As of 10 p.m., Hebert had a lead of 774,000 chips to Salas’ 226,000.
Hebert has played the tournament in honor of his mother, Linda, who died unexpectedly in July from a pulmonary embolism. He said he
felt like the stars had aligned for him in an otherwise awful year.
“A lot of things are going wrong in the world today, and just to have this opportunity is unexplainable,” he said.
Salas said: “I simply wish to show through these circumstances the best version of me.”
The flagship WSOP that is normally held each summer at the Rio was postponed because of the pandemic, and an online version was played on WSOP.COM for U.S. players and Ggpoker for international players.
The WSOP announced the hybrid Main Event in November, with WSOP executive director Ty Stewart pointing to the game’s history.
After a complicated process, the WSOP was set to crown its champion Sunday. Either Hebert or Salas will have their banner placed next to Doyle Brunson, Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and other past Main Event winners if the WSOP returns to a live format in 2021.