Pablo Mariz: Winner of the Million Maker at The WSOP

The 48th annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) opened its doors on Tuesday, May 30, 2017 at the Rio All-SuiteHotel & Casino. The fourth annual Millionaire Maker (one of seven special events hosted at the WSOP), was held on June 10 and attracted 7,761 players. This is an increase from the previous year, which hosted 7,190 players. Each player has a buy-in of $1,500. The prize pool was estimated at $10,477,350, which was paid and distributed to 1,165 players, making it the second largest in WSOP history.

Many of these up-and-coming poker players are earning their chops through online gambling. A plethora of online casinos are available for those tempted, which offer everything from slots to roulette to poker. It's a boon for those who don't have the convenience of a nearby casino. Although many stateside users are finding that online gambling is still illegal in their state.

One lucky player was able to win the incredible first place prize of $1,221,407. Pablo Mariz, a Canadian semi-professional poker player, went against all odds to win big at the WSOP. It isn’t his first time attending the event, as he usually attends each year. “We come here every year, grinding small events hoping to hit something big and we finally did it,” he said with great excitement. This is for good reason, as many big names in the world of poker, such as Bryce Yockey and Senovio Ramirez, attended the event.

Prior to this extraordinary triumph, Pablo Mariz was able to win second place in the $1,000 Tag Team event, which took place earlier in the series. Pablo stated that he had only scheduled to stay for two weeks and play small events, but his win in the Tag Team event changed his plans by allowing him to stay a little longer. Now that he has won the Millionaire Maker, Pablo Mariz has decided to remain in Las Vegas for the remainder of the series and take a seat in the main event, an event that he was not originally planning on attending.

Mariz was struggling to find a job after completing his degree in finance over two years ago, but now that he has more money than he has ever seen in his life, it doesn’t seem to be a problem anymore. “I think we are going to be staying the rest of the summer, at least until the Main Event is over. I'm going for WSOP Player of the Year now,” says Mariz, who is sure to be sitting at the top of the leaderboard for Player of the Year.