John Cynn wins 2018 WSOP main event after marathon heads-up battle

LAS VEGAS -- John Cynn defeated Tony Miles heads-up to win the 2018 World Series of Poker main event early Sunday morning, claiming poker's world championship and $8.8 million.

Cynn, 33, of Indianapolis, played 10 full days of poker over the past two weeks at the Rio All Suite Hotel & Casino to turn his $10,000 buy-in into one of the richest prizes in poker, triumphing over a field of 7,874 players. The heads-up battle alone lasted over 10 hours, with records set for the most hands played heads-up to close out a WSOP main event and the most total hands at a WSOP main event final table.

On the 442nd hand of the final table, Cynn raised to 9 million with Kc-Jc before the flop, Miles made it 34 million with Qc-8h, and Cynn called. After a flop of Kh-Kd-5h, Miles bet 32 million and Cynn called. On the 8d turn, Miles went all-in for 114 million. After thinking for a minute, Cynn called, and it was all over.

Cynn entered this tournament with just shy of $1 million in career poker tournament earnings -- the bulk of which came from his 11th-place finish in the 2016 main event, for which he earned $650,000.

Miles, who entered the day as the chip leader, earned $5 million for his second-place finish.

The final day of play began with three players, but it took just 18 hands for Michael Dyer to have his all-in bet called. His Ah-Td failed to catch up to Miles' As-Jh, and Dyer took home $3.75 million for his third-place finish.