Abhinav Iyer Wins 2019 World Series Of Poker $1,500 Closer Event

The $1,500 Closer at the 2019 World Series Of Poker wasn’t the official last event of the summer, but for the massive field of 2,800 entrants, it was certainly one of the last opportunities for a huge payday at the annual summer series.

After three days of starting flights, it took just one more day of play to determine a champion with the 30-minute levels. India’s Abhinav Iyer dominated his final table en route to his first career bracelet and the top prize of $565,346.

In addition to the money, Iyer also earned 1,200 Card Player Player of the Year points for his win. The POY is sponsored by Global Poker.

“I won crucial pots at the right time,” Iyer told WSOP reporters. “Luckily my table on day 1 was pretty good, and also my table starting today was relatively good. I came into [today] with over 50 big blinds so I knew I could maneuver my stack.”

Iyer becomes the fourth Indian to win a bracelet, the first of which came in 2017 when California-based Nipun Java partnered up with Aditya Sushant to take down the tag team event. Java would then add another bracelet later that summer. Last year, Nikita Luther picked up a title of her own in the tag team event as well.

“It is a booming market,” Iyer said of his home country. “Now more and more people are getting into poker as well, including [online] poker sites. I hope this can enhance the growth of the WSOP [in India]. Like now, Indians are turning out more and more, every passing year. Hopefully this brings a lot of people out and we get more results.”

Iyer’s final table also featured 2018 WSOP Player of the Year Shaun Deeb. The New York poker pro ultimately bowed out in seventh place for $80,766, but is once again in the hunt for POY honors as the series comes to a close.

Deeb cashed 17 times this summer and made four final tables, including a fifth-place showing in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, and a runner-up performance in the $10,000 dealer’s choice event.

Other notables to make a deep run in the tournament included Patrick Eskandar (5th), Steve Yea (8th), JC Tran (10th), Rex Clinkscales (15th), Ryan Leng (18th), Jonathan Tamayo (20th), Jeff Gross (32nd), Anatolii Zyrin (40th), Roman Korenev (41st), Ian Simpson (45th), Dylan Linde (52nd), and Ari Engel (55th).

Here is a look at the final table results.

For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.