Trygve Leite takes down $130,100 and his first WSOP gold bracelet (Photo Courtesy VENETIAN POKER BLOG)

Trygve Leite entered the World Series of Poker $300 Double Stack No Limit Hold’em event with 14 career WSOP cashes including five in this year’s Online Series on GGPoker. Earlier this month he finished in 12th place in the $300 Monster Stack for $6,637 but did considerably better on Saturday with a first-place finish, a $130,100 and a WSOP gold bracelet.

Event #75 drew 3,552 players to yield a total prize pool of $991,008. Before Saturday’s win, the biggest recorded cash of Leite’s career came in a PPPoker Live High Roller event in Manila last February for $23,998.

Leite took down the first pot of the final table pre-flop with a three-bet from the cutoff and then took down the second pot preflop as well with a standard open raise. Leite made another raise open raise in the third pot of nine-handed play and was met with an all-in shove to 11,649,317 from Connor Drinan in the big blind with 5h5c. Leite quickly called and turned over the AsAc, keeping his red-hot start at the final table going as the board ran out JhJc3d4h2c to eliminate Drinan in ninth place.

David Mitchell entered the final table with the shortest stack and found a spot to get the chips in just three minutes after Drinan’s elimination. Mitchell raised to 2,800,000 from early position leaving himself only 737,736 left behind, and he called that off when Eliyahu Elyshiv made an isolating raise to 9,600,000 from the cutoff. Elyshiv held the 8d8s and was flipping against Mitchell’s AdTs before the KsJd8c moved Elyshiv way out in front with a set. Mitchell couldn’t catch the queen he needed on a 3d turn and an As river and was out of the event in eighth place.

Leite picked up his second elimination of the final table on the very next hand. Jiahuan He raised all-in for his last 8,467,462 with 3d3c on the button and Leite re-shoved to isolate with the 5h5c. Gregory Ronaldson folded in the big blind and the board came AhJs2h7d8h, bringing no help to He and knocking him out in seventh.

Six-handed play lasted for about 15 minutes before Leite was on the destruction path again. The action folded around to Paul Lozano who moved all-in from the small blind for 8,105,847. Leite called in the big blind to see that his AdTc was ahead of Lozano’s KsJd. A 7c5d4sQs2d board eliminated Lozano in sixth place and extended Leite’s heater.

Just five minutes later, Leite folded under the gun and Ronaldson went all in for his last 10,471,700 with As5s. He was called by Emanuele Monari, who had entered the final table with the chip lead and was still second in chips when he made this call with the Ad7c. Both players hit top pair on an Ah9h8d flop, but Monari’s kicker played as the turn brought the 2c and the 3d on the river completed the board to knock out Ronaldson in fifth.

The final table’s fast pace continued as the next elimination came with five minutes again. This time, Monari min-raised to 2,000,000 as the first player to act and Elyshiv raised to 7,000,000 on the button with just 1,078,346 left behind. The action folded back to Monari who moved Elyshiv in for his remaining stack. Monari’s Ah7h remained ahead of Elyshiv’s KhTs on a 6s4s4d flop. The 9s on the turn brought in some flush outs for Elyshiv, but he was eliminated in fourth place when he bricked out with the 5c on the river.

Three-handed play lasted for about 10 minutes before Leite min-raised to 2,000,000 from the small blind and Anjali Agrawal made a stand from the big blind with an all-in shove to 17,119,944. Unfortunately for Agrawal, Leite had the goods this time with the AsKc and quickly called. Agrawal’s Jh8s was behind before the flop and completely crushed when the flop came Kd9d9c. The 4c on the turn left Agrawal drawing dead and the meaningless 5h on the river sent the final table to heads-up.

Leite entered heads-up play with a roughly 2-to-1 chip lead. It took only 55 minutes for the final table to whittle down from nine players to two, and Leite and Monari went to war for another 55 minutes before a champion was finally crowned.

On the final hand of the tournament, Monari limped in on the button and called Leite’s raise to 6.4 million. The flop came Qh6h5s which prompted a bet of 4,356,000 from Leite and a call from Monari. Leite bet 16,434,000 when the Jc came on the turn and Monari quickly called. The 8d on the river completed the board and Leite checked. Monari moved all-in for his last 44,617,657 after rivering two pair with the Qc8c. But Leite snap-called and revealed that the river had helped his hand as well as his Th9d had improved to the nut straight to clinch the win.

Final Table Payouts

1. Trygve Leite – $130,100
2. Emanuele Monari – $101,292
3. Anjali Agrawal – $72,204
4. Eliyahu Elyshiv – $51,470
5. Gregory Ronaldson – $36,689
6. Paul Lozano – $26,154
7. Jiahuan He – $18,643
8. David Mitchell – $13,290
9. Connor Drinan – $9,473