London’s own Scott Shelley earned his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet Tuesday morning by winning the WSOP Europe ₤1,075 No Limit Hold’em Event #3, collecting £133,857. Shelley bested a field of 508 players to join Phil Laak and Jeffrey Lisandro in the winner’s circle at WSOP Europe, which is celebrating its fourth year at London’s Casino at the Empire.
Shelley’s ascent into poker prominence came at the expense of some remarkable poker history. The story going into the Event #3 final table was fellow Brit and Team PokerStars Pro J.P. Kelly, who was attempting to not only defend his title in the same event, but also trying to become the youngest player to win three WSOP bracelets at the ripe age of 24. The mark was held by Phil Ivey, who won this third as a 26-year-old.
Kelly began the day third in chips and, after seven players hit the rail, found himself heads-up against Shelley for the historic title. Kelly held a chip lead over Shelley when the match began, about one million to 700,000, and the two players battled back and forth, with Shelley winning the majority of the small pots. Kelly was able to double through Shelley to regain the chip lead, but it wouldn’t last long.
In the final hand of the match, with the blinds at 10,000/20,000/2,000, Shelley raised to 47,000 on the button and Kelly moved all-in. Shelley, who had his opponent covered, stood up from his chair and made the call, revealing [3c][3h], which led Kelly’s [Qd][Jh]. The board ran out [8c][5h][3s][7h][Td], giving Shelley a winning set and the biggest victory of his poker career.
“No doubt about it, this is life-changing money,” said an elated Shelley, who won his seat into the event at a private tournament held by his company. “The money is huge for me. But what really means more than I can say is getting the gold bracelet. I really am at a loss for words.”
Kelly, meanwhile, would have joined the likes of Phil Hellmuth, Johnny Chan, Stu Ungar, Doyle Brunson, and Thang Luu as back-to-back winners of the same WSOP event. Luu was the most recent to accomplish the feat, winning Omaha Hi-Lo Split bracelets in 2007 and 2008. Instead, Kelly earned £82,854 for his runner-up finish.
“I do not know J.P. Kelly well. But I certainly know of him,” said Shelley, also 24-years-old. “I respect him a lot. To me, he is one of the best British players. Of all the players at the table, he was by far the best — by a country mile. I said to myself that if I got heads-up, I did not want it to be against him. And sure enough, we ended heads-up and he was going for back-to back titles. And he had the chip lead on me. But somehow I managed to win.”
Here’s a look at the final results from WSOP Europe Event #3:
1. Scott Shelley – £133,857
2. JP Kelly – £82,854
3. Jeppe Bisgaard – £55,063
4. Paul Pitchford – £40,862
5. Kaveh Payman – £30,666
6. Mehdi Senhaji – £23,239
7. Jack Lyman – £17,768
8. Karim Jomeen – £13,694
9. Nicholas Katz – £10,633
Two more champions will be crowned before the 2010 WSOP Europe schedule wraps up next week. Event #4, the £10,350 No Limit Hold’em High Roller Heads-Up tournament, played down to the final 32 players on Tuesday, and several big names will return Wednesday vying for the bracelet and £288,409 payday. Among them are Ivey, Daniel Negreanu, Huck Seed, Howard Lederer, Gus Hansen, Ilari “Ziigmund” Sahamies, Yevgeniy “Jovial Gent” Timoshenko, Amit “amak316” Makhija, and Chris “moorman1” Moorman. The action kicks off at 3:00pm local time.
The WSOP Europe slate concludes with its flagship £10,350 No Limit Hold’em Championship, which will run from September 23rd to 28th. Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for all of the updates from London.
