Only 25 players returned to the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas for Day 4 out of a mammoth field of 7,538 entries, with all eyes on the $660,000 top prize from the $6,633,440 prize pool. Mohammadi came into the final day as the chip leader and sprinted to the finish line, steamrolling the final table before ultimately defeating Larry Quang in a short heads-up battle for the title.
After closing out the win and recording a new career-high score, he was overcome with joy as he celebrated with his friends on the rail.
"It's like a dream come true, absolutely. I've been very close a couple of times, but going through a field of 5,500 plus players and trying to keep the flag up, it just feels amazing."
Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Homan Mohammadi
Canada
$660,000
2
Larry Quang
United States
$450,000
3
Bruce Diamond
United States
$337,000
4
Buck Bucceri
United States
$254,000
5
Ablahad Salim
United States
$193,000
6
Manfred Wolf
Germany
$148,000
7
Todd German
United States
$114,000
8
Ronald Moore
United States
$88,000
9
Keith Romer
United States
$70,030
Feeling the Pressure But Remaining Confident
Not only did Mohammadi enter the final day as the chip leader, he continued his momentum and held his lead all the way to the final table. He was honest about the pressure he was feeling but also mentioned how getting a big bluff through yesterday helped his confidence.
"My friends back home, and all the pros who know me, they said you have to have this. I was feeling really good about this, but the pressure was just so big. I tried to stay focused, and I took one step at a time. I'm happy it worked out. I stayed in control throughout the entire day for sure."
"My friends back home, and all the pros who know me, they said you have to have this."
"It was yesterday, actually, where I pulled a really big bluff for my entire stack against one of the other chip leaders. And I think that was the moment when I said, OK, if you want to play your absolute A-game, this is the spot that you have to take. And that's the one that I took, and I got the bluff through. After that, I said, OK, now I'm feeling I'm stepping into the territory of being in the zone."
Poker Background and Adjusting to the Seniors Event
Mohammadi mentioned that he relied on his skills and knowledge of the game to stay level-headed and understood how to make the necessary adjustments given the nature of a senior's event.
"I have a chess background, but I looked at it as a sport and as a game. And what fascinated me was that poker to me is actually a combination of math, psychology, and just sensing out situations, just like life. I study a lot because poker has been changing throughout the years. Every time I come to Vegas, I see that the game has changed, and I have to keep up with it and try to exploit it."
"What fascinated me was that poker to me is actually a combination of math, psychology, and just sensing out situations, just like life."
"It's a different beast. I'm actually a six-max specialist, and, you know, it's not really what people my age do. I've been playing the seniors for like four years now. The first year that I started playing the seniors, I was shocked because my approach was completely different. I had to really adjust because they have a different kind of approach to the game. So I think I have a better understanding of how to approach the seniors tournament. It's a little different than like a $5k 6-max, trust me."
Mohammadi used his stack and experience to his advantage, keeping his foot on the gas pedal right out of the gate. He used timely aggression to apply ICM pressure on the shorter stacks and scored back-to-back knockouts, sending Todd German to the rail in seventh and Manfred Wolf in sixth.
Manfred Wolf
From there, Mohammadi continued to climb when his ace-jack bested the king-queen of Buck Bucceri, eliminating him in fourth.
Once three-handed play began, he briefly relinquished the chip lead and found himself at the bottom of the counts, but remained focused on the task at hand. Undeterred, he battled back and ended Bruce Diamond's tournament run when his top pair held against Diamond's open-ender, taking a 2:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Quang.
Keeping his cool, Mohammadi found redemption shortly after in the final hand of the tournament when his ace-six proved best against Quang's king-seven, with the dramatic runout making the moment even more memorable.
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