Brian Yoon, a California-based poker pro, has made it his specialty to reach WSOP final tables and to emerge the victor from those. Last night, the player captured his third gold bracelet after making a third final table in the Series.
He also scooped his largest-ever live cash of $1,094,349 to go along with his shiny gold piece. Yoon topped the field of the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack tournament. And it was quite a field that the player had to overcome. As many as 6,716 entries took part in the event, all eyeing a one-million-plus first-place prize and a gold bracelet that has long been considered a testament to poker professionalism and love for the game.
Day 4 of the Monster Stack event saw the original field being reduced to just 20 finalists. Bulgaria’s Stoyan Obreshkov led the pack into the legendary Brasilia poker room for a final day of action. The player kicked off play as the only player to have gone beyond the 10-million chip mark.
By the time the official final table of nine was set, Ihar Soika had established himself as the chip leader with a commanding advantage over his opponents. Yoon was second in chips at that point and the player maintained that position for quite a while.
It could be said that Soika and Yoon were the ones to dominate action over the final stages of the tournament. When the Belarusian folded, Yoon used the opportunity to act and improve, while seeing fellow competitors leave the table.
It was not a surprise when during three-handed play Yoon eliminated Stanley Lee in third place to set a much-anticipated and quite promising heads-up match against Soika. The eventual winner had already scooped the lead at the time.
However, Soika had proved himself a tough opponent, so winning the tournament was not an easy task for Yoon. He finished off his final opponent within 26 hands, during which the Belarusian managed to even their stacks and even take the lead for a very short while. However, Yoon quickly regained composure to continue his determined march toward victory.
The final hand in play occurred when Yoon raised to 2,000,000 pre-flop and Soika shoved his remaining 19,800,000. Yoon made the call after several moments of deliberation, turning [Kh][10h] to face off Soika’s [As][8s]. The board ran out [Js][5s][2h][7d][10d] to secure Yoon with his career’s third WSOP title. Soika, a player with two previous WSOP cashes, took home $675,995 for his efforts.
It seems that Yoon may be feeling quite comfortable in larger field events. The player collected his first gold bracelet namely in such an event. During the 2013 edition of the Series, Yoon topped the field of the $1,111 buy-in Little One for ONE DROP, besting a total of 4,755 other tournament entries.
