The $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship or Event #50 on this year’s WSOP schedule was completed early this morning. Nevada-based player Ben Yu topped a tough field of 117 entries to collect his 30th WSOP cash and his first-ever gold bracelet.
The player received a total of $291,456 of the entire prize pool, which amounted to $1,099,800. Of all the players who entered the tournament, the top 18 finishers were paid. The payouts started from $15,606.
It could be said that Yu’s achievement was quite impressive, as he was the short stack when play was down to only three players. Yet, he managed to overcome the disparity and eventually capture the long-coveted gold bracelet.
Apart from Yu, the three-handed play featured two former bracelet winners – Jesse Martin, who won his first and only WSOP title in 2013, and Justin Bonomo, who captured his last year. In fact, it looked like Bonomo would be the one to win the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship, as he held the majority of chips for quite some time. However, the player was eliminated in 3rd place.
Thus, Yu had to face Martin for a final heads-up duel, which lasted a little more than 3 hours. Hand #211 turned out to be the last one for the day and the tournament as a whole.
Martin raised on the button and Yu bet 180,000 from the big blind. His opponent called leaving himself only with 10,000. The flop ran out [Ah][Js][10d]. Yu bet and Martin shoved his remaining chips in. The first tabled [Ad][Jd] against the latter’s [Qs][3d]. The dealer turned [6c] on the turn and [Jh] on the river. Martin could not stand a chance against Yu’s full house and had to content himself with a 2nd place in the event and the consolation prize of $180,114.
As for the champion, he captured his 30th WSOP cash and his first title. Up to now, Yu has collected $714,310 in career WSOP earnings.
And here are the rest of the players who sat at the final table of the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship:
As mentioned above, former bracelet winner Justin Bonomo took 3rd place in the event to be paid the amount of $130,480. Russian player Aleksandr Denisov added $96,309 to his poker bankroll for his 4th place.
Anthony Zinno finished 5th to scoop a $72,377 portion of the prize pool. Kenny Shei collected his 17th WSOP cash of $55,341 for taking 6th place in Event #50.
Gabriel Nassif finished 7th for $43,035, his 34th Series cash. One-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson took 8th place for $34,027. Rounding up the final table, Terrence Chan received $27,341 of the prize pool for finishing 9th.
