The name of the first open event gold bracelet winner of the 2016 World Series of Poker is now clear. The 29-year player from Illinois, Kyle Julius topped up a field of 667 entrants and scooped the first place prize amounting to $142,972 as well as the first bracelet in his career as a professional poker player.
The Top-Up Turbo event was a new format to WSOP and entrants were allowed to double their starting stacks either by participating in a Sit-n-Go at Rio or playing the game at the WSOP site.
The winner himself was among the players who topped up via a participation in a Sit-n-Go in the land-based Las Vegas property. Julius finished Day 1 of $1,000 Top Up Turbo No-Limit Hold’em with 530,000 in chips. He managed to send Ben Yu, a former $10,000 Limit Hold’em event winner, to the third place, which gave the start of a heads-up play between Julius and the Belgium Bart Lybaert. The latter was knocked out in second place and received $88,328 for his efforts.
This was the fifth cashout in a WSOP event for Lybaert and the first time he made it to the final table. As for the bronze medallist Ben Yu, he was paid $61,137. This was the 32nd WSOP cash in the poker career of the Stanford University graduate.
Right after he emerged victorious, Kyle Julius shared that it was a great feeling to win a bracelet and to start the second summer tournament with a triumph. Apart from the financial reward and the bracelet, Julius also earned 840 POY points.
The victory brought him yet another advantage, though. Julius and his fiancé are expecting a baby in the summer and the first place in the Top-Up Turbo event secured Julius the right to name his daughter. The winner said that the decision was going to be mutual, but after the victory, he had “a little more to say”.
Karl Held, who finished Day 1 as a chip leader, occupied the 4th place and was paid out $43,001. This was the second cash out from a WSOP event in his career. Hugo Perez finished fifth and collected $30,742. The sixth place was for the German Christian Blech who pocketed $22,345.
Nitis Udornpim made his final table debut during the Top-Up Turbo event. He was awarded $16,518 for his seventh place. George Dolofan was knocked out in 8th place shortly after the start of the event and pocketed $12,422.
For the veteran of WSOP and WSOP Circuit events, Vinny Pahuja, that was the 43rd cashout. He was awarded $9,506 from the accumulated prize pool for his ninth place and his WSOP earnings reached almost $400,000.
