Luis Yepez wins marathon heads-up battle at WSOPC Southern Indiana

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Day 3 of the WSOP Circuit Southern Indiana Main Event was a lengthy one as a final table of nine returned to play down to a winner over 10 hours. In the end, it was Luis Yepez who won the $111,979 grand prize and his second career WSOP Circuit ring. 

Yepez defeated Niles Lawless in the heads-up marathon and Abdul Amer finished third after he ended the final day with the chip lead. Dan Hummer finished in fourth and Bradley Butcher finished up the top five players. 

Yepez is originally from Venezuela and has been living in the United States for five years now, often playing on the circuit. This win makes for his second-largest career score, with his largest coming in 2015 for $185,000 in an event in the Dominican Republic. This score is a bit of a milestone win as well — moving his career earnings above the $1 million mark, according to The Hendon Mob.

The final table of the WSOPC Southern Indiana Main Event.

Yepez was pumped up after his win, and he let out a scream of celebration. He went off to collect his thoughts and freshen up before his winner pics. 

"I have to thank the Lord," he told PokerOrg after the win. "I can't do it without Him, He is the most important thing." Yepez made sure to show his cross prominently as his pictures were taken, also making sure to note the meaning of his winning hand "33" to be the same as the age at which Jesus Christ's life ended.

Heads-up marathon

The path to his win ended up being defined by the heads-up battle that he had with runner-up Lawless. It was a war of attrition as the two crossed swords for four hours, making it one of the longest heads-up battles you are likely to see in a circuit event. 

But what made it even more unique was the parameters the battle was fought in. In a back-and-forth affair, Neither player dropped below 30% in chips until the very end and there was not a single move all in from either player until action was 4 hours in the heads up. 

Niles Lawless came up short after a four hour heads-up battle.

Very few hands went to showdown and not very many pots were larger than 2 million chips (when there were 13.4 million chips in play). Both players stayed true to this steady style of play all the way until the end where Yepez was eventually able to win the only two all-ins.

Day 3 highlights

The day began with Yepez being second in chips, just barely behind Abdul Amer. The first two eliminations came fairly quickly before things slowed down at seven-handed play. There was then a dramatic double elimination where Yepez took out both Jason Blodgett and Derek Nold with pocket jacks against pocket tens and pocket sixes. That was the catapult Yepez needed to take the commanding chip lead.

From there, Butcher went out in fifth place before Hummer went out in fourth, coming up just short of his runner-up finish in the Main Event from May.

Amer and Yepez were the two big stacks at three-handed play as they seemed destined to have a big heads-up confrontation that was projected from the start of the day. But it was not to be as Amer had his aces brutally cracked by the ace-jack of Lawless when the flop gave him trip jacks. Amer was decimated after that and could not recover as he was eliminated in third to set up the aforementioned heads-up battle.

WSOP-C Southern Indiana Main Event final table results