Joseph Sabe Banks a $507,978 Score at the Wynn Millions

The Wynn Millions recently crowned its Main Event champion when Tony Sinishtaj triumphed for $1,655,952 but that does not mean the festival is not still producing massive payouts. Joseph Sabe and the $507,978 he won are a testament to that fact.

Sabe is a Frenchman who lives in Lebanon. He came out on top of an 889 strong field in the $3,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event. Wynn Las Vegas guaranteed a $2 million prize pool yet paid out $2,867,025 to the top 89 finishers.

Dozens of household poker names made it into the money places. Ankush Mandavia was the first in-the-money player, his 89th place finish coming with an $8,357 payday. Ryan Laplante, Ali Imsirovic, Marty Mathis, Stephen Song, and Jack Hardcastle all cashed. Hardcastle made it to the final two tables but the WPT Montreal champion fell in 12th for $38,112.

Sabe Marches On To His Career-Best Score

Each of the finalists locked in $51,971 but Sabe had his eye on more than half a million dollars. Armado Collado of Nicaragua was the final table’s first casualty before Ryan Roeder of Montana won the $61,641 eighth-place prize.

Javier Zarco fell by the wayside in seventh place, a finish good for $74,256. Zarco is a Spaniard who lives in the north of the United Kingdom. He has $2,858,733 in live tournament earnings after this latest result.

The tournament lost another big winning player when Justin Zaki bowed out in sixth. Zaki narrowly missed out on the sixth six-figure prize of his career. Sixth-place prize money here weighed in at $92,318.

Clayton Maguire finished second in last year’s Wynn Millions Main Event for $1,443,757. He made do with a $118,408 payout in this tournament. The Wynn is a happy hunting ground for Maguire, who now has $3,338,749 in earnings.

James Romero finished in fourth for $160,840 before reigning WPT Player of the Year Jacob Ferro crashed and burned in third for $227,355. Romero had a very quiet 2021, partly due to COVID-19 but has started this year remarkably well.

Ferro’s untimely demise left Sabe heads-up against Brazilian online poker sensation Joao Simao. Sabe got the job done and his hands on $507,978, leaving Simao to bank $334,295.

$3,500 No-Limit Hold’em Wynn Millions Final Table Result

Place	Player	Residence	Prize
1	Joseph Sabe	Lebanon	$507,978
2	Joao Simao	Brazil	$334,295
3	Jacob Ferro	Florida	$227,355
4	James Romero	Las Vegas, Nevada	$160,840
5	Clayton Maguire	Las Vegas, Nevada	$118,408
6	Justin Zaki	Florida	$92,318
7	Javier Zarco	Spain	$74,256
8	Ryan Roeder	Montana	$61,641
9	Armando Collado	Nicaragua	$51,971

Sabe had $318,743 in live scores before this event and was relatively unknown. That changed with this impressive victory over a star-studded field.

The Lebanon-based French player has 32 recorded live tournament cashes to his name. They date back to 2011. None were particularly impressive until he won a $2,200 buy-in event in Cyprus in January 2017 for $80,397. He put together a handful of deep runs at the 2018 and 2019 WSOP, but this latest result is by far his most impressive poker achievement.

There is plenty of high stakes poker to pique your interest over the coming 12 days because the 2022 U.S. Poker Open is here. It takes place at the PokerGO Studio in Las Vegas between March 16-28, and features 12 events.

$10,000 is the cheapest buy-in, with $50,000 the most expensive. David Peters is the reigning U.S. Poker Open champion having amassed 646 points in 2021. Peters won $832,950 during the series, and finished way ahead of second-placed Sean Winter of 484 points and $785,700 in earnings.

Expect Peters and the usual suspects to compete in the latest edition of the competition and chase some massive prizes.

Brad Johnson

You name the game, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Brad has either played it or placed a wager on it! Brad calls himself a natural gambler, and someone who gains as much enjoyment from writing about the crazy game of poker as he does playing it.

View Articles