Try saying that several times!
At quarter to eleven on the last night of June, Rafael Furst (more commonly known as Rafe) scooped $345,984 when he won the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold 'Em Freezout event.
With top players such as Michael 'The Grinder' Mizrachi, Chris 'Jesus' Ferguson (left), Kirill Gerasimov, Brandon Schaefer, Hoyt Corkins, and Erick Lindgren all making the latter stages, winning the Series' 3rd gold bracelet wasn't going to be a walkover, and, indeed, one of the 'name' players made it to the final 4th in chips.
That high roller was John Juanda (below), and he started the Final Day with a rather menacing $147,000, a stack that had many tipping him for victory. However, it wasn't to be, and after running his pocket Queens into the Big Slick of Can Kim Hua (a King hit the flop), the Las Vegas pro was sent packing in a disappointing 8th position.
And so, it was left to the relative unknowns to battle it out, one of them being Californian Rafe Furst, who, although struggled to make an impact in the early stages, soon shot into the lead with around 6 players remaining.
From then on, he barely looked back, only rarely swapping his chip lead with Eric Lynch. With 3 left, Furst even managed to extend his lead to in excess of 1 million, an amount that his other two opponents would never quite overcome.
However, the heads-up battle was set to be an interesting one, as it was Rocky Encisco who made the final elimination, who happened to be Lynch, when his K-Q paired up on a K-J-3-Q-5 to outdraw both Lynch's A-7, and, more importantly, Rafe's A-K.
So, although still half a million behind, we at least had a chance of a game on our hands, but, alas, it wasn't to last longer than 45 minutes when Encisco's J-4 on a T-8-4-T board lost out to Furst's 8-4 (3 pair!). The raggy 2 on the River was of no help and Furst was crowned King for the day, a bracelet heavier and well over 300k richer.
As expected, this Pot Limit Event wasn't as popular as the No Limit one from the previous day, but the comp still managed to lure in 1,110 participants, all of whom played their part in building a rather enticing prize pool of $1,651,500.
So, another comp down and, guess what, there's another one around the corner!
Good Lord, the poker just never ends.
We've had a $1,500 No Limit Freezout, a $1,500 Pot Limit Freezout, no prizes for guessing what Event 4 is...
[Ed note: To see the final result of this comp, please click here]