With play halted on Monday night in the latest $1,500 NLHE tournament at the 2011 World Series of Poker due to the Hard-Stop Rule, Andre Akkari found himself enmeshed in a heads-up battle against fellow poker pro Nachman Berlin that would have to be carried over to Tuesday. Apparently the night’s sleep was more of a benefit for Akkari since the Brazilian poker pro overcame a massive chip deficit to claim his first WSOP bracelet.

The heads-up match was by far the best of the 2011 WSOP, even better than John Juanda’s epic comeback against Phil Hellmuth in the $10k No Limit 2-7 Lowball Championship, and likely made both players a slew of new fans –my guess is their Twitter accounts will double in the next day or so; the true measure of your popularity!

Entering the heads-up match on Tuesday trailing Nachman Berlin by a near 3-to-1 deficit Akkari held strong early-on and eventually started chipping-up little by little, before finishing off Berlin when the blinds and antes basically forced the issue.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

1. Andre Akkari – $675,117

2. Nachman Berlin – $419,173

3. Matthew Carmody – $295,635

4. Jacob Niquin – $213,520

5. Scott Sitron – $156,090

6. Nicolas Chouity – $115,477

7. Zachary Hall – $86,434

8. Philip Meulyzer – $65,452

9. Ray Foley – $50,140

Results courtesy of wsop.com

Tags: blinds, Carmody, Guess, Jacob, John Juanda, Match, Monday Night, Nachman, phil hellmuth, Poker Pro, Popularity, Ray Foley, Series Of Poker, Slew, Triumphs, True Measure, world series, World Series of Poker, WSOP, Zachary

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