For once, everyone agrees about the World Champion of poker: Martin Jacobson’s victory in the Main Event of the WSOP 2014 is both logical and well earned.

Photo: Jayne Furman - WSOP

Unlike the majority of recent winners, the talented Swede already had a reputation and was both feared and respected long before winning the ultimate title on Tuesday night. A feature of the live circuit since 2008, the Swede was a regular at the biggest competitions in Europe, with two second place EPT finishes (Vilamoura, 2010 and Deauville, 2011) and the WPT (Venice, 2009), as well as numerous final tables all over the world. Long years of hard work have finally been rewarded with the greatest of all victories.

In the Penn and Teller theatre of the Rio Casino, Martin Jacobson’s performance was flawless, many observers claiming his strategy to have been perfect throughout the two days of play. Jacobson may have reached the final table with the smallest stack, but his experience showed and he took advantage of his opponents’ mistakes to put himself in a dominant position. His performance is one the likes of which we’ve never seen before: throughout all six days of the tournament, Jacobson NEVER left the top thirty of the 6,683 participants.

For the first time in the history of the World Series, non-American players outnumbered their American counterparts at the final table, with many pros also commenting that the non-American domination of the final table wasn’t simply numeric, but also technical.

The first player eliminated was also the one everyone was waiting for: Mark Newhouse, author of an incredible exploit: reaching the November Nine one year after his elimination in 9th place. Short stack in 2013, Newhouse will without doubt have more regrets this year. He possessed a lot more chips and would have gone much further in the tournament if not for an ill-advised bluff early in the game. In July, Newhouse published this Tweet at the beginning of the Main Event; an incredible inversed prophecy:

The other Americans at the table had to make do with seventh, fifth and fourth place (Daniel Sindelar, Billy Pappaconstantinou and William Tonking respectively).

Bruno Politano, the first Brazilian player to reach the Main Event Final Table, finished just after Newhouse in eighth while Spaniard Andoni Larrabei bowed out in sixth.

Congratulations to Martin Jacobson, the first Swedish World Champion in the history of poker. We already knew he was a great player and now, he’s claimed immortality!

See below the 328th and last hand of the final table, followed by Jacobson’s interview and the prize ceremony.

Results

WSOP Main Event Final Table 2014 – $10,000 – 6,683 entries

Winner: Martin Jacobson (Sweden) $10,000,000
Runner-up: Felix Vincent Stephensen (Norway) $5,147,911
3rd: Jorryt van Hoof (Netherlands) $3,807,753
4th: William Tonking (USA) $2,849,763
5th: Billy Pappaconstantinou (USA) $2,143,794
6th: Andoni Larrabei (Spain) $1,622,471
7th: Daniel Sindelar (USA) $1,236,084
8th: Bruno Politano (Brazil) $947,172
9th: Mark Newhouse (USA) $730,725