Poker player Brian Hastings from Hanover Township, Pennsylvania won his second WSOP gold bracelet mere hours ago. He topped the field of the three-day $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, known to be the world’s highest buy-in tournament for this poker variation.
This year, the event attracted a total of 91 entries and a prize pool of $855,400 was created. The first 16 finishers scooped their portion of the money, with the payouts starting from $15,106.
Hastings faced some really tough competition at the eight-handed final table, as there were three former bracelet winners apart from him. Dan Kelly and Scott Clements were striving for their third pieces of WSOP jewelry, and Max Pescatori was not only going for his fourth career bracelet but also for his second one in 2015.
Hastings started Day 3 of the event holding the biggest stack and managed to maintain his chip lead for the greater part of the day. He faced Clements in one final heads-up play to deny his opponent the chance to capture his third WSOP bracelet.
On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Hastings was holding [2d][5d]/[Jd][8d][9d][3h]/(x) against his opponent’s [As][Kc]/[7h][8s][Qs][10s]/(x). With Clements showing [7h] and Hastings bringing in [Jd], the first raised to 60,000 and the ladder shoved all-in. Clements called and the rest of the cards were dealt.
As it could be seen, Hastings made a diamond flush on fifth street, but Clements had a chance for a higher flush on sixth street. Eventually, the latter showed [Kh] as his final card to take 2nd place in the tournament and the amount of $148,001 as a consolation prize.
As for Hastings, he was awarded his second-ever WSOP bracelet and the amount of $239,518. Up to now, he has collected a total of $1,139,276 in career WSOP winnings. The player won his first bracelet back in 2012, when he finished 1st in the $10,000 No-Limit Hold’em Heads-Up event for $371,498, which is the biggest live cash he has ever scored. And his overall live winnings total $1,680,025 after his latest victory.
Apart from his live tournament achievements, Hastings is among the most prolific online players. Reportedly, he took down a $4-million pot in a heads-up Pot-Limit Omaha game against Viktor ‘Isildur1’ Blom once.
Looking back at the $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship, Dan Kelly from Potomac, Maryland finished 3rd to capture the amount of $92,691. Chris George from Croton-on-Hudson, New York took 4th place to scoop $67,114.
Russian female poker player Oxana Cummings captured the amount of $52,453 for her 5th place. Harley Thrower from Cumming, Georgia finished 6th for $41,829.
Mikhail Semin, the other Russian player at the final table, took 7th place to capture his biggest WSOP cash of $33,967. Rounding up the final table, Italian Max Pescatori, who collected his third WSOP bracelet a few days ago, finished 8th to receive a $28,031 payout.
