Thousands of WSOP poker players compete at the $500 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em tournament dubbed The Big 50 at the Rio on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
WSOP poker players compete at the $500 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em tournament dubbed The Big 50 at the Rio on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Ian "Aces" Sweden, of Kirkcady, Scotland, wears a dragon hat during the The Big 50, a $500 buy-in, no-limit WSOP Hold’em tournament at the Rio on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
Thousands of WSOP poker players compete at the $500 buy-in, no-limit Hold’em tournament dubbed The Big 50 at the Rio on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
A joker card is mistakenly dealt during the The Big 50, a $500 buy-in, no-limit WSOP Hold’em tournament at the Rio on Saturday, June 1, 2019, in Las Vegas. (L.E. Baskow/Las Vegas Review-Journal) @Left_Eye_Images
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.
