Salem Beats the Best as He Claims Maiden Bracelet in the GGMillion$

As Event #11: $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller No-Limit Hold’em dwindled down to just three remaining players, the dawn of a brand new bracelet winner was confirmed. That man was Naseem Salem, known as Nick to his nearest, who came out on top of the 627 player field to claim his maiden piece of World Series of Poker hardware.

Salem more than tripled his total live earnings, having cashed for $468,774 historically, according to The HendonMob. The whopping $1,089,964 first-place payday completely trumps his previous top score of $208,919, rewarded for a second place finish in 2024’s Poker Hall of Fame Bounty. This time, however, he went one better than second, which in his eyes is the “worst place to finish”, and ensured he wouldn’t be left just short of the finish line again.

Salem built up a huge chip lead throughout the third day of play, and despite eventual runner up Alexis Cruz Martinez making up ground just before bagging up, as well as giving him a two-outer scare heads-up, the San Diego local prevailed in their heads-up battle.

This followed on from an extremely solid final day for Salem as he knocked out both John Racener and Chad Lipton on his path to victory, even after Lipton’s formidable start to the day, which included making quads and getting a double elimination.

Event #11: $10,000 GGMillion$ High Roller No-Limit Hold’em Final Table Results

Salem picked up poker as a hobby back in his days as a student, and has been known to frequent high-stakes mixed game tables, but that clearly hasn’t stopped him from getting into his two-card groove. He has live cashes in the game going back to 1999, as well as having scored two separate Main Event cashes, coming 58th in 2007 for $154,194, then 804th 11 years later for $18,340.

Runner-up Cruz Martinez may be disappointed, but a career-best score of $726,598 is certainly not to be sniffed at. Undoubtedly, the Texan will be looking to continue in the hunt for a bracelet to add to a collection, which currently includes a WSOP Circuit ring won last summer.

Speaking with PokerNews, Salem made it known that the seven-figure payout was equally as important as the respect of his peers, as he has now truly shown what he is capable of on the big stage. The victory came against some of the best players in the world, including the all-time money list’s number two Stephen Chidwick, WSOP Paradise Main Event winner Bernhard Binder, and super crusher Jesse Lonis. This is something that he will undoubtedly cherish, and he’ll revel in the glory with his fellow players and friends back in Southern California.

Although Salem came into the final day chip leading, he knew it would be no easy feat to stay on top given the talents sharing the table with him; including Chris Brewer, Racener, and Roman Hrabec. Salem claimed that once they were dispatched, there was no doubt in his mind that he could take the whole thing down. Joining an elite club of WSOP champions, he has proven himself as a force to be reckoned with.

Final Day Action

The eight players that made up the final table were almost instantly whittled down to five, as action was ready to be moved to stream much earlier than expected. First to go was two-time bracelet winner Cliff Josephy, who doubled up Racener to start off the day, before being sent home despite making eights full when his opponent Chad Lipton made quads.

Lipton, with one elimination already to his name, decided not only that he wanted more, but that they had to be simultaneous. His pocket queens had both short stack Joey Weissman’s sevens and Hrabec’s ace-king drawing dead on the turn, with his rivered boat propelling him into an enormous chip lead. With a 100 big blind stack, Salem had more than a third of the chips in play when the final five made their way over to the stream table.

As action started on stream, Cruz Martinez managed to secure a huge double, deceptively checking his flush over to Brewer, who made a mistimed all-in bluff. Lipton then extended his chip lead with ace-queen out-flopping Salem’s pocket jacks in a three-bet pot, knocking the eventual champion down to below second place in chips for the first time since Day 3.

The first televised elimination of the day came in the form of quads yet again, as fifth place finisher Racener’s pocket nines rivered a four-liner against eventual champion Salem, who had turned quad sixes. He river-jammed, which was tank called by the three-time bracelet winner.

Another player with multiple bracelets to his name just missed out on the podium, as Brewer continued to suffer the consequences of his earlier misstep, never fully recovering from the lack of chips it left him with. His final ten big blinds got into the middle preflop, but covering stack Cruz Martinez held on to win the flip, bolstering his own chances of going all the way with an important chip up.

Three-handed action saw Lipton hold the overwhelming chip lead with 28,000,000 chips going into the 200,000/400,000 blind level, with his opponents a notch below, both hovering around 17,000,000. In an attempt to put the big stack to use, Lipton ended up losing an incredibly large pot to Cruz Martinez, as he put in a massive river check-raise that his opponent, holding two pair, looked up relatively quickly. It wasn’t long before he would head home, as he got into a preflop flip against Salem, whose turned set had his opponent dead. He didn’t head home empty handed, however, as Lipton was awarded $503,997 for his efforts, good for his second-best score to date.

The heads-up battle began with Cruz Martinez well in the lead, however, one of the first pots played flipped the script completely. Salem’s flopped straight allowed him to check-raise and double-barrel, with Cruz Martinez paying off the first two streets, and folding to a shove as his flush draw bricked out.

Salem then hit a hot streak, making a good call with fourth pair on a scary board, before rivering trips while dominated and getting some small value. Shortly after, Cruz Martinez regained the lead, before losing it in an insane cooler as both players rivered boats, with Salem’s tens over sixes getting the better of his opponent’s tens full of threes.

Cruz Martinez was left incredibly short, and managed to river a two-outer after having been destined to lose a massive flip to Salem’s turned ace. That being said, it just wasn’t enough to help him progress any further, as Salem turned yet another ace to take the lead in a flip. Martinez couldn’t repeat the magic, as he bowed out gracefully at the hands of the champion.

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