It was a really exciting final table of Event #2 ($1,500 NLHE) as previous bracelet winners Vanessa Selbst, JP Kelly and Andrew Badecker were on it. All eyes were on JP Kelly when the final table started, but nothing worked out for the British poker pro and he was knocked out already in 8th place.
Vanessa Selbst was the next player to hit the rail. After losing a significant pot to Jacob Bazeley, she moved all-in from cutoff holding K
7, Andrew Badecker called from small blind with K
Q. The board ran out J9
4Q
8 and Badecker moved into the chip lead with three remaining players.
Badecker, who was the last remaining bracelet winner in the tournament, first lost a massive pot when he rivered a full house with Q10 on the board K Q 10 8 10 against Bazeley's higher full house with KK. Shortly after he ran into Brent Hanks (on the left) pocket queens holding pocket 10's (all-in pre flop). This left Brent Hanks and Jacob Bazeley fighting for the gold bracelet and the first prize of about half a million dollars.
It was a very even heads-up match and Bazeley and Hanks took turns at holding the chip lead. In fact, the heads-up battle lasted for several hours and there was still not much separating them. However, all poker tournaments come to an end sooner or later and so did this one....
Brent Hanks raised to 160,000, and Jacob Bazeley three-betted to 420,000. Hanks raised to 780,000. Bazeley went all in and Hanks called. Bazeley held 99 versus Hanks' A8. Bazeley was just a few cards away from the title when the dealer was preparing to reveal the board.
The flop came out A76 and there was a huge cheer from the rail as Hanks paired up. The turn 6 and river 4 was to no help for Bazeley who just had a few chips left.
In the very next hand the cards were turned over and Hanks's A10 beat Bazeley's 104 as the board ran out J1026J. Jacob Bazeley received $322,294 for his runner-up finish and Hanks won his first WSOP bracelet and $517,725! Hanks had reached 3 WSOP final tables before this one, so the win must have felt extra good for him!
