Card Player’s 2018 WSOP coverage is sponsored by BetOnline Poker. Get a 100 percent deposit bonus, up to $1,000, by joining now. The site offers great cash game action and a chance to win more than $1 million in guaranteed tournaments throughout the month.
The first of two razz events on the 2018 World Series of Poker schedule drew 389 entrants, down a bit from 2017’s field of 419, creating a prize pool of $525,150. In the end, the title, the bracelet and the $125,431 first-place prize went to Jay Kwon, a 36-year-old from Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“[Razz] is like my favorite game, and I feel like it’s an underappreciated game and people get frustrated at it,” Kwon told WSOP reporters after his win. “But I love the game and this means more to me than a lot of tournaments. I started playing it and it was really interesting, so I kind of got into it and just started playing it a lot. I’m somewhat of a razz specialist.”
Kwon topped a final table that included top pros Kevin Iacofano (5th), Adam Owen (3rd), and Dzmitry Urbanovich (2nd). Other notables that finished in the money included David Singer (12th), Max Kruse (14th), Julien Martini (16th), Mark Gregorich (17th), Katherine Fleck (19th), Ylon Schwartz (26th), Ted Forrest (27th), John Racener (33rd), John Cernuto (34th), Cyndy Violette (39th), Benny Glaser (44th), Chris Bjorin (50th), and Maria Ho (54th).
Urbanovich, now 23 years old and already Poland’s biggest tournament winner by a large margin with nearly $5.4 million, was appearing at his first WSOP final table to date.
Here is a look at the final table results.
Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
1 | Jay Kwon | $125,431 | 600 |
2 | Dzmitry Urbanovich | $77,526 | 500 |
3 | Adam Owen | $52,536 | 400 |
4 | Michael McKenna | $36,234 | 300 |
5 | Kevin Iacofano | $25,637 | 250 |
6 | Thomas Taylor | $18,477 | 200 |
7 | Jeffrey Mitseff | $13,605 | 150 |
8 | Jeanne David | $10,240 | 100 |