A big congratulations to Jesse McEuen, the winner of Event #47: $1,500 Ante Only NL Hold'em! McEuen bested a field of 714 players over three days of play to lay hands on his first gold coveted bracelet and $212,093 in prize money!
Final table results:
1st: Jesse McEuen - $212,093
2nd: Jonas Lauck - $130,955
3rd: Rhys Jones - $85,131
4th: Simeon Naydenov - $62,528
5th: Adam Levy - $46,575
6th: Ryan D'Angelo - $35,143
7th: Herbert Yarbrough - $26,825
8th: Jeremy Joseph - $20,704
9th: Arthur Pro - $16,145
The money will come in handy for the 34-year-old from Akron, Ohio who had almost no money when he arrived in Vegas. According to WSOP.com, McEuen was living the high life about three years ago, including financial independence, owning three houses and investments that were paying off as well.
Then one afternoon in April 2011, everything changed when Black Friday hit and millions of poker players lives were changed over a night
"I had $400,000 to my name and it was gone overnight," McEuen said in an interview with WSOP. "I went from being comfortable for seven years to being broke overnight."
After Black Friday he lost a huge amount of money at one online site and was forced to sell his houses, sold off one by one in order to pay his bills and stay alive. When he was out of cash, he headed for Mexico to play online poker legally again. However, he didn't do too well after the move to Mexico either and within two years all his money was gone.
A little help from a friend...
McEuen might not have been able to play this tournament if it wasn't for his friend John Kabbaj, a British poker pro with 2 WSOP bracelets and $2.7 million in live tournament earnings.
After Kabbaj won his second WSOP gold bracelet in Event #25 this summer, he ran into a player he only had played with a few times in the past. He saw McEuen standing in the line at the Rio, waiting to check into the hotel. The two pros exchanged a few words and Kabbaj soon got to know about McEuen's finical situation and decided to give a helping hand.
"I came here with a thousand bucks in my pocket. I basically came here with that, my dog, and my car - and that's when I met my buddy John again, who really looked out for me. He gave me a shot to get back in the game," said McEuen, "After three years, I can finally breath again."
