The 2013 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event may be the…well…Main Event this week, but there are still a few events finishing up at the Rio. One that was done in a flash Sunday was Event #58: The Little One for One Drop $1,111 No-Limit Hold’em. Only eight players remained of the original 4,756 and after just three hours, Brian Yoon emerged victorious, winning $663,727.
The Little One was new to this year’s WSOP schedule, and like its name implies, it was a mini version of last year’s hit Big One for One Drop tournament, won by Antonio Esfandiari. The shrunken buy-in created a field that was 100 times larger than last years, though, presenting many, many more minefields on the way to the final table. $111 of every buy-in benefited the One Drop charity, resulting in $527,916 going towards bringing clean water to people around the world.
Prior to this tournament, Yoon had cashed in the World Series of Poker four times in his career: once this year, twice last year, and once in 2011. This was not only his first final table, but his first time even placing in the top 50 of a WSOP event. Yoon’s first WSOP bracelet also marks his first ever major tournament victory and the paycheck was triple his total lifetime earnings.
Going into the final table, Yoon was in good shape with 2.65 million chips. Nghi Tran was the chip leader with 4.13 million, followed by Roland Israelashvili with 3.375, then Yoon. Two other players were fairly close behind Yoon with over 2 million chips.
As mentioned earlier, the final table went by quickly. When it got to heads-up, Yoon had a huge lead on Cuong Van Nguyen, 14.035 million chips to 5 million. Nguyen played the short stack aggressively at the start, winning the first five hands via all-in shoves. Yoon took the next five hands, though, expanding his original heads-up chip lead by 2 million.
On the eleventh hand of heads-up play, the tournament ended. Nguyen raised to 450,000 pre-flop and Yoon put him all-in. Nguyen decided to take his stand right there and called, revealing T♣-8♥. Not a good hand, but he was live as Yoon showed K♣-Q♣. One of those live cards paired when the flop came down A♥-T♦-6♣ and Nguyen remained ahead with the 9♠ on the turn. The river, though, was the K♥, giving Yoon the better pair and his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
2013 World Series of Poker Event #58: The Little One for One Drop $1,111 No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Brian Yoon – $663,727
2. Cuong Van Nguyen – $408,264
3. Roland Israelashvili – $295,433
4. Justin Zaki – $218,771
5. Henry Tran – $163,340
6. Joseph Morneau – $122,933
7. Kevin O’Donnell – $93,269
8. Alexander Case – $71,311
Brain or Brian ;)
Brain, of course. He must be intelligent if he’s a good poker player. Yeah…that’s the ticket!