Bosnia and Herzegovina Denied the First WSOP Bracelet

In case you were wondering, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a small country on Balkans, with a decent football national team and not much else to be proud of. It so happens that it is also the country from which yours truly hails. But tonight, it came inches away from having its first WSOP bracelet winner as Dejan Divkovic made a deep run on the final table of WSOP Event #19. His best finish prior to this was the victory in ANZPT Main Event, when he pocketed $147,777.

Twelve players returned to play today for the final day of the event, and it took a while before the official final table was set. But eventually they got there, and Divkovic was sitting near the bottom with 990,000 in chips. But then his climb started, as he eliminated two players in one hand, when his pocket Kings turned into quads against pocket Aces of Edison Shields who finished in eight and suited connectors of short-stacked Dylan Thomassie who claimed the ninth position.

With seven players still in, Divkovic was in control, sitting with over 2 million in chips Then he scored another knockout, sending Hiren ‘Sunny’ Patel on his way in 7th place. He was cruising. Jamie Kaplan fell in sixth, and then Divkovic made yet another knockout, sending Mustapha Kanit to the rail.

Things were looking good, but it is almost an unwritten rule of poker that, when things are going this well, they are bound to go downhill at one point. With four players remaining, he came back from the dinner break a chip leader with 3.7 million. And then things started falling apart. First short stacked Jacobo Fernandez doubled through him, and then he lost a huge flip to Ted Gillis, when his pocket Sevens couldn’t hold.

Just like that, he was down to ten big blinds, and although he managed to outlive Fernandez, who finished in fourth, he was the next one to go, when his Ace-Six fell to Ace-Queen of Ted Gillis. Although he will receive $222,429 for his performance, the first WSOP bracelet for him and for Bosnia and Herzegovina will have to wait, and it could be a long wait. Not many players from around here take part in the Series and apart from Divkovic, the only one in the contention, as far as I am aware, is Alen Bilic, who also had a shot yesterday, but finished 15th in Event #15.

With his exit Ted Gillis and John Hennigan were left to sort out the little matter of who gets the bracelet. After a short heads-up battle, it was Ted Gillis who prevailed, after first seriously crippling his opponent and then administering the finishing blow. Together with his first WSOP bracelet, Gillis received $514,027 for his victory, while the runner-up Hennigan got to take home $319,993.