Phillip McAllister, a 22-year-old poker professional from the United Kingdom, has become the latest player to join the elite club of WSOP gold bracelet winners. McAllister has just won the $3,000 Shootout No-Limit Hold’em for his first Series gold piece and the amount of $267,720 in prize money.
This has been the young Englishman’s first major poker title. In January, he took 3rd place in the PCA $5,300 Main Event. The player has said that winning $356,020 for his deep run in this year’s PokerStars Caribbean Adventure made it possible for him to enter more WSOP events this summer.
Shortly after emerging victorious in the $3,000 Shootout, McAllister told interviewers that he was excited about winning the gold bracelet but that it was more about the money.
The event was played over three days from June 24-26. It attracted a total of 400 entries, with some of poker’s big names being among those. They generated a prize pool of a little less than $1.1 million. The top 40 finishers were paid. Each of the players at the official ten-handed final table was guaranteed a min-cash of $16,717.
McAllister won the gold bracelet and the first-place prize after emerging as the winner in three successive single-table rounds. The first round had a total of ten players and the second included four players. The third round was actually the ten-handed final table.
The young Englishman was the last man standing among several well-known poker pros, with some of those being Maria Ho, Faraz Jaka, and Stephen Chidwick. All three players have come really close to winning the coveted gold piece. However, as it seems, they will have to wait a little more for it as it was McAllister’s turn last night.
The player faced Kyle Montgomery from Fishers, Indiana heads-up. Two-handed match started with the Englishman as the chip leader and lasted a total of 30 hands. Montgomery took the lead at some point but could not hold up against his opponent and eventually had to settle for the runner-up finish.
Hand #198 was the last one for the day and the one to conclude the whole tournament. McAllister limped on the button and Montgomery shoved for about 1,380,000. McAllister snap-called and turned over [Qs][Qh]. Montgomery showed [10h][9c]. The board ran out [5c][3s][2d][Jd][Kc], securing the Englishman with the final pot and the title. Montgomery’s consolation prize amounted to $165,450.
Canadian Christopher Kruk finished 3rd for $119,686. Maria Ho from Arcadia, California took 4th place for $87,487. Andreas Freund from Austria collected a payout of $64,628 for taking 5th place. Brazilian Marcos Antunes finished 6th in the event, good for $48,252.
Jesse Yaginuma from Silver Spring, Maryland received $36,416 for taking 7th place. Rhys Jones from the UK finished 8th for $27,783. Faraz Jaka from San Jose, California took home $21,431 for his 9th place in the event. Stephen Chidwick from the UK rounded out the official ten-handed final table for $16,717.
