The 2024 $3,500 Wynn Millions Championship has come to an end and Neel Murthy is the winner after he defeated Chris Frank in heads-up play.
The tournament drew a total of 1,180 entries across three opening flights, with 236 of them turning out for Day 1a. Day 1b drew 403 entries and a bumper crop of 541 turned out for the final flight to send the tournament well over it’s $3,000,000 guarantee. In the end, the top 151 players divided up a prize pool of $3,746,500 and Murthy claimed the lion’s share of $502,856 after a heads-up deal with Frank.
Haim Gabay finished in third after a long three-handed battle, while Paul Lozano Martin and Jesse Kandola rounded out the top five players that returned for the Day 5 finale.
2024 Wynn Millions Championship Final Table Results
| Rank | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Neel Murthy | United States | $502,856* |
| 2 | Chris Frank | Germany | $500,000* |
| 3 | Haim Gabay | United States | $301,369 |
| 4 | Paul Lozano Martin | Spain | $223,372 |
| 5 | Jesse Kandola | United States | $165,379 |
| 6 | Pedro Ingles | Spain | $122,721 |
| 7 | Dominick Sarle | United States | $91,730 |
| 8 | Daniel Maor | United States | $69,947 |
| 9 | Jeremy Felicetti | United States | $54,467 |
*-denotes final two deal
Winner’s Reaction
Murthy wasn’t supposed to make Day 5, by his own admission, but a series of events on Day 4 brought him off the felt and set him on course for a dominating chip lead going into the final table.
“I could have blown the entire tournament,” Murthy said in his post-win interview with PokerNews. I check-raised king-queen for value on a queen-ten-four board. The turn was a five and I led out before he went all in. I ended up making a fold that left me with between 10 and 15 big blinds.”
Murthy doesn’t know for sure if he was beat, but he believed his opponent when he said he had five-four.
“Two hands later I woke up with kings and I got called with a pair and a flush draw. That brought me back to life before I doubled through Martin Zamani. Which felt good because he was the one that gave me shit for the king-queen fold.”
The win is Murthy’s second biggest career score behind a second-place finish at the 2016 Asia Championship of Poker in Macau. This is also Murthy’s second big score at the Wynn in recent months after he ran to 27th in the WPT World Championship for $159,200 in December.
Murthy will be back this summer for WSOP, and he plans to step it up.
“I haven’t played a full series in many years, and I don’t think I’ll play the whole thing, but I will definitely play more events than I usually do.”
Day 5 Highlights
The day kicked off with an early shove from Martin, who got it in with ace-queen against Murthy’s ace-eight. Murthy got no help and Martin doubled himself off the bottom part of the leaderboard.
The five players settled in for a patient start, and no big moves were made until Kandola hit the rail in fifth place. Kandola got it in on the turn with a pair of tens, but Gabay was there for the knockout with a pair of sixes. The San Jose native picked up the biggest score of his poker career with the fifth-place finish and he sent his career earnings over $200K.
Martin, who folded himself out of trouble during Kandola’s bust hand, got it all in with ace-four on a deuce-three-four flop in Level 29. Frank called with a suited five-two and turned the six to eliminate Martin with a straight. The Spaniard also picked up the biggest win of his career, beating the previous high score of $6,475 by many magnitudes.
The final three settled in and Frank made moves up the leaderboard to pull near even with Murthy. Gabay drifted slowly down towards the felt for the three-and-a-half hours of three-handed play before he got his dwindling stack in with a suited jack-ten. Murthy called with nines and found a clean run out to send the tournament to heads-up play.
Murthy entered the final two with a dominant chip lead, but the dynamic changed when both players got it in with their respective suited ace-queen. The board ran out with a flush for Frank and he took the chip lead moments into heads-up play.
The hand prompted a discussion about a deal, and an accord was reached after several calculations. The players agreed to put $25,000 to the side and play for the trophy.
Heads-up play ensued for nearly two 45-minute levels, but Murthy pulled away over time and Frank couldn’t find his way back. The big moment came when Murthy shoved with a flush and Frank called him off with three jacks to end the tournament.
Live Reporting Executive
Las Vegas-based PokerNews Live Reporting Executive, originally from Chicago, IL
