In Event 13:
Steve Gee was the winner of the $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event at the 2010 World Series of Poker. It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory. Gee is a 54-year-old poker pro who now lives in Sacramento, California. He has been playing poker for more than three decades and was one of California’s top cash game Lowball players, long before flop games such as Hold’em became popular.
Gee collected $472,479 for first place. The nearly half-a-million dollar payout was fitting given the heavy odds stacked against him when he began play three days earlier. Gee conquered a massive field size of 3,042 players en route to his biggest poker win ever.
This was the second $1,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event held at this year’s WSOP. Every weekend three huge No-Limit Hold’em events are played. Most Fridays include a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em tournament. A $1,000 buy-in event takes place on Saturday and Sunday (two flights/starting days). Each Monday includes another $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event. All Day One starting times are noon.
The top 324 finishers collected prize money. The runner up was Matthew Vance, from Lowville, NY.
Event 14
Yan R.Chen was the winner of the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Draw Lowball event at the 2010 World Series of Poker. It marked his first career WSOP gold bracelet victory. The poker pro from Irvine, California collected $92,817 for first place. This was Chen’s third WSOP final table appearance within the past two years. He had a third-place finish in a similar Lowball event held last year, and a fifth-place showing in the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship. In fact, he cashed four times last year.
Event 15
Frank Kassela ended Day 2 with the chip lead, as play was paused two spots before the money. Today, those 18 players returned to whittle their way down to a winner and Kassela was able to ride that lead all the way to his first WSOP bracelet.
Kassela is truly a self-made man. After getting out of the army, he borrowed $7,000 from his parents to start a business. Now he's a multi-millionaire. Kassela made a WSOP final table before, back in 2005 when he was four-handed in the $2,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event. He picked up pocket aces and got his money in against Johnny Chan, who spiked a queen to take him out. Chan went on to win his tenth bracelet that night while Kassela would have a five-year wait to earn his first.
Kassela also noted in his post-game interview that while this event was starting, he was still playing in Event #12, $1,500 Limit Hold'em. He bubbled off the final table in 10th place and had he not busted then and there, he would not have played this tournament.
Tonight's final table was one of the 2010 WSOP's toughest. Kassela had to get past Dario Minieri, POY points leader Vladimir Schmelev, Kirill Rabstov, John Juanda, Steve Zolotow, Jennifer Harman and runner-up Allen Kessler in order to claim the $447,446 first-place prize. That's nine WSOP bracelets right there, and now Kassela is proud to call himself a member of that fraternity.
Congratulations to Frank Kassela, truly one of the good guys of poker, on his first WSOP bracelet. It's been a long time coming and is certainly well-deserved.
Event 16
6 Max $1500 NLH
What can we say about Carter Phillips? He's barely old enough to legally consume alcohol in the United States, but he already has two major wins under his belt -- an EPT title and now a WSOP gold bracelet. Phillips used a combination of good cards, excellent timing and power poker to bulldoze his way through the last 16 players in this field enroute to victory.
It's true that Phillips had to get lucky to win. If his all-in confrontation with Craig Bergeron towards the end of the tournament had gone the other way, Phillips would have become the short stack with about 1.2 million chips and Bergeron would have been the one able to swing the bully stick.
But nobody should take anything away from Phillips. He put himself in a position to get lucky with strong play. Phillip' most impressive hand today may have been his absolutely sick call with just a pair of treys on the turn after Mikhail Lakhitov check-raised all in. Phillips never hesitated when he called. It turned out his hand was in the lead and faded 15 outs on the river to send Lakhitov to the rail.
In what was arguably the youngest final table in WSOP history, it was only fitting that the 21-year-old Phillips should be the player to capture the bracelet. When asked how it felt to be the one to win, Phillips said, "It's more amazing than I ever could have imagined."
For all of his skill, stamina, luck and heart, Phillips banks the champion's share of the prize pool -- $482,774.