Luongo, who was playing in his first Main Event, survived three full days of poker action before finally busting in the early stages of Day 4.
The Montreal-native survived an early scare when he was all-in with pocket sevens against an opponent’s ace-queen.
If Luongo had busted on that hand he would have been eliminated just short of the money and gone home $10,000 lighter (although technically PlayNow.com paid his buy-in).
Instead Luongo successfully faded all his opponent’s outs and scored a pivotal double-up to 185,000 chips.
After surviving a pressure-filled money bubble (the money began at 666 players remaining) Luongo made his final play by shoving with pocket fours. Bryan Vanrijsbergen called him down with pocket jacks and the board ran out dry to eliminate Luongo.
Luongo received $19,227 for coming in 634th in the world’s biggest tournament.
Fabio Still Alive, Both Cash First Main Event
Considering Luongo has a 12-year $64 million contract, there’s a good chance the former all-star isn’t all that concerned about a min-cash but it was still an impressive run from the Canadian goaltender.
There was some silver lining for Luongo, however, as brother Fabio, who we interviewed along with Roberto yesterday, is still alive in the tournament with an average stack.
Regardless of where Fabio finishes that means both of the Luongo brothers are 1-1 in cashing at the Main Event.
There were a number of notable sports stars who played in this year’s WSOP Main Event including MMA superstar Georges St-Pierre, international cricketer Shane Warne and former NBA Heat player Earl Barron but Luongo outlasted them all.
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