And the biggest pay day of his career… $894,300
Chicago poker pro Brandon Shack-Harris (38) claimed his second World Series of Poker winner's bracelet and the impressive top prize of $894,300 over the weekend when he took down the $10,000 buy-in 8-Handed Pot-Limit Omaha Championship at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Post-match he acknowledged that it had been one of the toughest in his WSOP career, which has seen him feature on nine final tables and secure 20 cashes since he started appearing at the series in 2011.
The 400-player field for the event included many top players, including Eric Seidel, Jason Mercier, Mike Matusow, Jesper Hougaard, Peter Eichhardt and Scott Seiver, all intent on grabbing a slice of the $3.76 million prize pool.
In the face of such fierce competition the event overran its scheduled duration, necessitating the addition of an extra day which saw Shack-Harris start with the chip lead ahead of just six final table survivors remaining.
He eliminated most of them before moving to the heads up stage with a 2 to 1 advantage over Nevada pro and WSOP bracelet-holder Loren Klein, a tough opponent with a reputation for unorthodox and varying play similar to that of Shack-Harris.
The evenly matched duo went at it, with Shack-Harris initially dominating to increase his lead to 4 to 1, only to have Klein claw his way back into the game and match his chip stack. That meant further interesting and at times exciting exchanges as Shack-Harris grinded his way back into a 3 to 2 lead that finally enabled him to claim the victory after a total ninety minutes of action.
Klein's very impressive resistence earned him a second placing prize worth $552,713, and renewed respect from top players watching from the rail. During the course of the current series the Nevada pro has won a bracelet in the $1,500 buy-in Mixed NLHE-PLO event and cashed in four other competitions.
"This is definitely the most gratifying moment for me in my poker career," said Shack-Harris. "All of my friends were here and everything ended perfectly."
The other final table cashes included:
Tommy Le $376,667
Melad Marji $261,652
Matthew Parry $185,337
Harley Stoffmaker $133,918
Junayed Khan $98,748
Dominique Mosley $74,339
Online Casino News Courtesy of Infopowa
