Murthy Wins 2024 Wynn Millions Championship, Takes Home $502,856

Summary:

• After making a surprise comeback, Neel Murthy won the 2024 $3,500 Wynn Millions Championship.
• Murthy scooped up a $502,856 prize after defeating Chris Frank in a heads-up play.
• The victory is Murthy’s second big score at the Wynn in recent months.

The 2024 $3,500 Wynn Millions Championship which gathered 1,180 entries in total has finally ended. 

Neel Murthy was crowned as the big winner after defeating Chris Frank in a heads-up play.

Quick Breakdown 

The tournament featured three opening flights and 236 of them turned out for Day 1a. 

Day 1b gathered 403 entries while the final flight brought together a large number of 541 entries. 

This helped send the tournament over the $3,000,000 guarantee, at a prize pool of $3,746,500 divided between the first 151 players. 

Murthy took home the lion’s share of $502,856 after his heads-up battle with Frank. They were followed by Haim Gabay who came in third despite starting Day 4 in the lead at the end of a lengthy three-handed battle.

Paul Lozano Martin and Jesse Kandola rounded out the podium with the top five players who made a comeback for the Day 5 finale.

Surprising Comeback for Murthy

As Murthy himself explained, he wasn’t supposed to make Day 5. However, several events that occurred on Day 4 brought him off the felt, leading to him dominating the chip lead and making it into the final table.

“I could have blown the entire tournament,” he explained. His win represents his second-biggest career score, following his second-place finish during the Asia Championship of Poker in Macau in 2016. 

The victory is also his second big score at the Wynn recorded in the last few months. In December, Murthy ran 27th in the WPT World Championship for $159,200.

Murthy will make a comeback for WSOP this summer as part of his plans to “play more events” than he usually does. 

“I haven’t played a full series in many years, and I don’t think I’ll play the whole thing”, he added. 

Day 5 began with Martin’s early shove, who doubled himself off the bottom part of the leaderboard.

After a patient start, Kandola hit the rail in fifth position, getting it in on the turn with a pair of tens. 

Gabay was prepared for a knockout with a pair of sixes. The San Jose-born managed to pick up the highest score of his poker career with his fifth-place finish, which boosted his career earnings to over $200,000.