Florida man wins largest live tournament at WSOP in Las Vegas
Femi Fashakin of Orlando, Florida, won the largest live tournament ever Friday, capturing the BIG 50 No-limit Hold ’em event at the World Series of Poker.
The $500 buy-in tournament drew 28,371 entrants at the Rio Convention Center over nine days to surpass the previous all-time record (22,374 entrants) set during the 2015 WSOP “Colossus” tournament.
Fashakin, a software engineer and entrepreneur born in Lagos, Nigeria, took home $1,147,449 with his first career bracelet. His previous lifetime WSOP earnings were a shade over $12,000.
Paul Cullen, a Las Vegas resident originally from Canada, finished second and made $709,183.
Fashakin started the final table with the chip lead but was the shortest stack at one point during four-handed play. He then found consecutive double-ups and was responsible the final three eliminations.
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