Damian Salas was victorious in his head to head battle with Joseph Hebert in the grand finale of the GG Poker World Series. Salas, the winner of the international version of the tournament, was finally able to claim the $1 million prize after a long battle. Initially delayed from December 30 due to COVID-19 restrictions, the final was certainly worth the wait.

With the win, Salas has now collected over $2.5-million in a matter of a few weeks thanks to this double victory.

173 Hands to Find the Winner

The battle took a total of 173 hands before the winner was decided, which shows that this game was hard fought. Of course, it was a surprise to have Hebert in the final in the first place since he came from nowhere to win the US section of the entire competition. In the end, he came up short with Salas eventually taking the victory. However, that in itself isn’t the full story.

Both Men are Winners

Even though the Argentinian won the gold bracelet, both players were winners as they had both already walked away with more than $1.5-million each in their own individual events. Throughout the match, things could have gone either way with Hebert having multiple opportunities to break away and gain the lead. Unfortunately for him, that wasn’t the case with Salas coming through.

In fact, after 71 hands it would have been hard to see Salas winning with Hebert taking a huge hand to give himself a 3:1 chip lead. However, Salas showed his determination and patience to chip away at the lead. This act of one player threatening to pull ahead before the other dug their heels in would replicate itself throughout the heads up duel. Even at hand No. 83, Salas was taking large gambles to pull things back before Hebert would then do the same later on to bring things back to even.

Hand No. 170 and Closing in

With all the back and forth action, hand No. 170 was a huge turning point with both guys sitting with an ace in their hand. However, Salas was the one who would show he had the nerve to take the risk as his kicker would prove to be vital leading to him not only winning the hand, but to taking a 4:1 chip lead over Hebert.

But then, as a sign of how this game would play out, Hebert won a couple of hands in a row to bring it back to even, but not for long. By hand No. 173, Salas landed a full house to ultimately walk away with the main prize and leaving Hebert as the runner-up.

From a game perspective, this was a classic with it proving difficult to know who would take the gold bracelet and first prize until pretty much the last hand of the match. This was the type of match that you would look for when it comes to a tournament of this magnitude. By the end, Salas was certainly a worthwhile winner of this WSOP GGPoker World Series event.