Kory Kilpatrick certainly knows how to make the most of his World Series of Poker final table appearances. On Monday, the professional poker player from Athens, Georgia, won his first-ever bracelet, nabbing the jewelry in the 2014 WSOP Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout in what was also the first trip to a WSOP final table of his young live tournament career. For his triumph, Kilpatrick won $254,891.
According to the database at TheHendonMob.com, Kilpatrick’s live tournament cash history is extremely WSOP-centric. He has 22 lifetime cashes, a full 13 of which have come at the World Series of Poker. Aside from this season so far, 2012 was his best year at the WSOP, as he cashed seven times. Kilpatrick also has three WSOP Circuit cashes, including a fourth place finish in the WSOPC Harrah’s Main Event last April, so 73 percent of his live cashes have been in the WSOP family of events.
Kilpatrick is also well known online, going by the screen name “s00tedj0kers” on PokerStars and the similar “s00tedj0kers89” on Full Tilt Poker. He reached a peak of 33rd on the PocketFives online tournament leaderboard in 2008 and according to the site has earned $2,156,236 in online tournaments.
Shootout events are always an interesting change of pace from the normal tournaments, as they don’t behave like your standard, behemoth WSOP event. Sure, 389 players signed up to play, scattered amongst 40 tables on Saturday’s Day 1, but there was not the usual table breaking and player movement that occurs in the other tourneys. Instead, in a shootout, each table plays down to just one player. After Day 1, there were 40 players remaining, the winners of each of their tables. Those 40 players came back for Day 2 to compete in smaller, four-handed single-table tournaments. The ten winners of those were the members of the final table on Monday.
It was a strong final table, too. In addition to Kilpatrick, those with shots at the crown were former bracelet winners Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Taylor Paur, and Chris Bell, the first two of whom had already made final tables in the 2014 World Series of Poker.
It was Eric Wasserson, though, who squared off against Kilpatrick in the end. Going into heads-up play, Kilpatrick had about a 2-to-1 chip lead and throughout the course of the relatively short contest never really found himself in any trouble. On the final hand, Wasserson raised to 60,000 chips pre-flop, Kilpatrick re-raised to 175,000, and Wasserson four-bet shoved for 850,000. Kilpatrick made a speedy call and was right to do so, dominating Wasserson with A-J against J-T. The board produced all low cards, offering Wasserson no help and giving Kory Kilpatrick his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
2014 World Series of Poker Event #20: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout – Final Table Results
1. Kory Kilpatrick – $254,891
2. Eric Wasserson – $157,490
3. Noah Bronstein – $115,659
4. Jack Duong – $85,616
5. Chris Bell – $63,877
6. Phil Galfond – $48,043
7. Taylor Paur – $36,414
8. Michael Stonehill – $27,812
9. Dylan Linde – $21,409
10. Narendra Banwari – $16,609
* Photo, tournament, and hand information courtesy WSOP.com