Kenneth Griffin started day of Event #45: $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em second in chips out of 21 players (Antonio Esfandiari, David Baker, Andrew Teng etc). Griffin played extremely well and his aggressive style of playing poker really worked against his opponents since he ended up taking down the whole tournament for $455,356 and received his first gold bracelet.
This was his first WSOP cash and by far the biggest win in his poker career. The money will come in handy for 34-year-old Ken Griffin whose mother recently was diagnosed with a very serious illness.
"I'm going to take care of her and be closer to home," Griffin said in a post-tournament interview. "I'm going to be transferring money into her account as soon as I get it. You know, she's a senior, working-class, she's going through some chemotherapy and medicine is expensive. She lives paycheck to paycheck, so I'm really looking forward to helping her out."