Romualdo Cusano Pips Mehdi Saeed for Freezeout Ring

It was a bit of a roller-coaster as they got to the end of the table, with three-handed play taking around an hour before Josh Hopkins hit the rail for 3rd. Mehdi Saeed, a steamer from Toronto who Twitches under the name “GitandSos”, was the leader for most of three-way play, but by the time they got heads up, Romualdo Cusano had taken the lead.

That started with a huge hand where he needed to get there to survive, and he did it in a massive way. Just before Hopkins hit the rail in 3rd, Saeed, who had been shoving most hands with the big stack, handcuffing the other players, shoved again. Cusano decided it was time to call, but he was up against it with queen-seven, while Saeed looked good initially with ace-eight of spades.

That all changed in a big way when the flop came queen-seven-seven to give Cusano the flopped full house, leaving Saeed drawing very thin. He was dead on the turn, and Cusano doubled. Once they got heads up, Cusano had a big lead with about 8 million to 2.5 million for Saeed.

A few hands later, they both found an ace, with Cusano out-pipping Saeed with ace-nine over ace-eight. While there were choportunities between the hands, the board ran clean for the nine to play, and Cusano had the ring.

This looks to be Cusano’s first live win, and therefore his first ring as well. He had just shy of $50k USD in earnings going into this series, so the $37k and change he won tonight should increase that total by 50% or so, once the exchange is factored in.