$600 Mixed No-Limit Hold'em / Pot-Limit Omaha Deepstack 8-Handed (Event #42)

Aristeidis Moschonas has pulled off a chip-and-a-chair comeback worthy of the history books, rebuilding a stack from a low point of less than one big blind to claim his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet and $194,759 in prize money. Rapturous Greek shouting met his 2019 WSOP victory over last year's $10,000 Stud champion Dan Matsuzuki, his final opponent out of a total field of 2,403 runners.

Moschonas, clutching a melon, gave a brief, self-deprecating summary of the period of struggle that preceded his dominant final phase.

"I was down to half a big blind after the first four levels," he said. "I doubled up four times, and that's it."

As for the melon, he explained, "When I play online and lose some pots, I call my opponents 'melons' (pepónia in Greek). So that's why I brought the melons."

"If I get a bad beat, I will give it to someone," he chuckled.

Final Table Results

There was a lot more to navigating the final table than four all-in pots, however. Returning with a middling stack, Moschonas faced serious obstacles in the form of seemingly permanent chip leader Adam Lamphere. who'd grabbed the lead on the first day of play and rarely relinquished it, and the experienced Matsuzuki, both with double the chips of the next-highest stack.

At first, Daniel Moravec, the returning short stack, looked as if he would be the one whose comeback story could make headlines. He tripled up on Hand #3 and stayed clear of the early aggression shown by the chip leaders. However, his comeback was shortlived and he busted in eighth place in an early PLO round to Matsuzuki, taking home $21,469.

Following him to the rail was, unexpectedly, Lamphere. With the stratospheric blind levels of the final table, the loss of a few big hands --- notably to Raghav Bansal — were enough to pull Lamphere's stack down to the point where Rainer Kempe covered him and sent him to the rail in another PLO hand.

Stephen Ma was next to bust, outlasting Lamphere by the merest slick of chips on felt; his final hand was for less than a quarter of a big blind, but the pay jump gave him $36,852 for his sixth-place finish. Ma was followed to the rail by Ashish Ahuja in a big PLO-hand against Matsuzaki, where his double-suited ace-king nearly got there against Matsuzaki's aces. By the turn, Ahuja had plenty of two pair and flush outs but bricked the river to finish in fifth.

Returning from the break, the eventual winner had his work cut out for him four-handed. Matsuzuki and Kempe held over 20 million each, while Moschonis was down to not even one full big blind. While it didn't hurt his initial doubler Bansal much to part with a single million, by the time he doubled against Kempe — the fourth time — in quick succession, he had enough chips to knock the German high-stakes pro down to a bustable stack. Kempe was, in fact, next to be eliminated, losing king-ten against ace-queen in hold'em, and was prevented from adding a WSOP bracelet to his bulging trophy cabinet.

Three-handed, Moschonas again dropped into last place chip-wise, with Bansal and Matsuzuki trading the lead until a huge three-way all in hold'em hand turned the tables once again, propelling Moschonis to a lead none would suspect even fifteen minutes before. When Bansal, an accomplished tournament player with over $1 million in live winnings to his name already, busted in third place, Moschonas' rail could taste zero-to-hero victory and cheered along with every pot won by their friend.

Not to be outdone, Matsuzuki's supporters cheered back as he aimed to claim a second bracelet. It was not to be, however. Heads-up play lasted a matter of hands, and Matsuzuki had to settle for second place and the not inconsiderable sum of $120,374.

The final hand had all the chips flying in on a nine-five-four flop with two spades. Matsuzuki found himself in a deep hole with ace-queen-nine-eight, way behind Moschonas' ace-nine-four-four for bottom set. The seven on the turn left only a gutshot to save Matsuzuki's changes of winning a bracelet in back-to-back years, but the trey on the river sealed it for the Greek instead.

Moschonas, victorious, attributed his success to his experience in both formats: "My main game is PLO. I'm a PLO cash game player online, and I also play no-limit hold'em tournaments. So it's like the perfect format for me, because I have an edge against hold'em players that don't know how to play PLO, as well as the opposite."

The future holds one definite for Moschonas – the upcoming $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Championship. "I actually wanted to play the $25k that's running now but I went too deep in this one, but it's okay I guess."

Pot-Limit Omaha

Aris Moschonas limped the button; Dan Matsuzuki potted from the big blind and took down the pot, keeping his stack afloat with over 13 big blinds. He then raised pot himself from the button (3,600,000), this time picking up Moschonas as a caller.

On the     flop, Moschonas checked, Matsuzuki bet 7,000,000 and was swiftly three-bet to 12,500,000; it was all-in and called in under two seconds.

Moschonas:      for a flopped set of fours.
Matsuzuki:     

The turn, dealt to a rousing drumroll courtesy of Moschonas' friends hammering the rail, was the  . Matsuzuki's friends were equally impassioned in their call for a six, but the river was the  , ending last year's $10,000 Stud bracelet winner's hope of another piece of WSOP jewellery.

Aristeidis Moschonas	72,090,000	14,990,000
Dan Matsuzuki	0	-14,900,000

No-Limit Hold'em

Moschonas took the first hand of heads up play with a button raise to 2,600,000. Matsuzuki took the next moving all in on his button. Moschonas changed it up, limping his button; check. Matsuzuki check-called 1,600,000 on the     flop, and 3,300,000 on the   turn. The river was the  ; check-check. The pot ended up chopped as both players had paired the jack.

Aristeidis Moschonas	52,900,000	600,000
Dan Matsuzuki	19,100,000	-700,000

Pot-Limit Omaha

Bansal raised to 2,700,000 on the button, called by big blind Aris Moschonas. On the flop of     Moschonas checked, Bansal fired 2,500,000 and picked up the pot. He also took the next one by default, getting a rare walk.

Bansal called 500,000 to make up the big blind, Matsuzuki checked and the checking didn't stop until a full board of       was on show. Bansal took the pot with     . The game switched back to No-Limit Hold'em.

Raghav Bansal	29,900,000	4,200,000
Dan Matsuzuki	28,600,000	-500,000
Aristeidis Moschonas	13,600,000	-3,700,000

No-Limit Hold'em

Moschonas folded his button and Raghav Bansal made up the big blind, with a check from Dan Matsuzuki. On the flop of    , Bansal led out for the min-bet of 1,000,000, called by Matsuzuki. The turn   was checked through, as was the river   and Matsuzuki's ace high (  ) beat Bansal's king (  ).

Another small blind limp followed, Matsuzuki calling but folding immediately to a shove from big blind Moschonas (15,300,000).

Raghav Bansal	30,700,000	-2,000,000
Dan Matsuzuki	24,100,000	1,000,000
Aristeidis Moschonas	16,800,000	500,000

No-Limit Hold'em

Aris Moschonas sat the next one out, Raghav Bansal moving in on the button for his entire 18,800,000. With the top three stacks within five million chips of each other, this exerted considerable pressure on the other pair. Kempe, after so many big decisions in the heftiest games around presumably immune to pressure, spent some time in the tank before finally laying his hand down.

The next hand, it folded to Rainer Kempe on the small blind, and he played the pressure card of his own, setting still-shortest stacked Aris Moschonas all in. Moschonas made the call with    and found himself ahead; Kempe showed   .

The flop:    . "Queen of nothing!" requested railer Sam Razavi, freshly busted from this event late last night.

The turn and river:    - another double for Moschonas, making a good show of his rebuild attempt from one big blind.

Aristeidis Moschonas	16,800,000	7,900,000
Rainer Kempe	10,900,000	-9,900,000

No-Limit Hold'em

Raghav Bansal opened to 2,250,000 on the cutoff, called solely by Ali Moschonas in the big blind. The flop of     saw the light of day for mere seconds, as Moschonas check-folded sharpish to a 1,000,000 bet from Bansal.

The second hand after the restart, Aris Moschonas shoved from the small blind for just 100,000 more than Bansal already had forcibly commited in the big blind. He was autocalled and at risk for his tournament life:

Bansal:   
Moschonas:   

The Greek rail went nuts as the board came out       to keep Moschonas alive.

Aristeidis Moschonas

3,200,000

-1,200,000

The four remaining players have left the room on a 15-minute break.

Pot-Limit Omaha

Rainer Kempe raised to 1,900,000 from middle position and won the hand. The next hand, Aris Moschonas raised pot to 2,800,000 from the cutoff, Raghav Bansal opted to see a flop on the button, and the blinds folded. A dry flop of     was spread and the Greek continued with 1,000,000. Bansal called in position. The turn brought the   and Moschonas now checked. Bansal bet 4,400,000 and Moschonas waved the white flag in defeat.