Brian Yoon takes down the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em MONSTER STACK, and Bryce Yockey does likewise in the highly competitive $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship.
Brian Yoon returned from a nine-month self-imposed sabbatical to take down Event:#47: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack and record his first million dollar score.
When it comes to sculpting World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet wins, Yoon has gotten it down to a fine art. Not only has the 27-year-old from Torrance, California, won every single final table he has ever pushed his Hush Puppies under, but they have all been huge scores.
Yoon’s first bracelet came in 2013 when he took down the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Little One For One Drop, earning $663,727. Yoon had to pass 4,756 entrants on that particular circular staircase to heaven, and the experience must have helped him defeat the 6,717 entrants who stood in his way in this one. His second bracelet came in 2014 when he beat 550 people to win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Eight Handed event for $633,341.
The final table contained a few gems.
The World Poker Tour (WPT) Champions Club member Will Failla brought his big guns to the table, and the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) record holder, Maurice Hawkins, came in hungry for more success so he could keep putting food on the table for his kids.
But ultimately, it was Brian Yoon and Ihar Soika who sat down next to each and every one of the final table and sung them lullabies they would never wake up from.
Soika, who is an experienced European Poker Tour (EPT)/PokerStars Championship High Roller Grinder, eliminated the first five players, including Failla and Hawkins. Yoon would eliminate the final four, including Soika.
It was Yoon’s fifth cash of the summer.
Final Table Results
1. Brian Yoon – $1,094,349
2. Ihar Soika – $675,995
3. Stanley Lee – $501,353
4. Ryan McKnight – $374,515
5. Yuliyan Kolev – $281,800
6. Maurice Hawkins – $213,591
7. Thomas Ryan – $163,087
8. Richard Ma – $125,451
9. Will Failla – $97,223
Other players that dived deeper than one of those ugly looking fish that eats off the ocean floor was the Day 2 Chip Leader Scott Baumstein (17th), the Canadian Scott Montgomery (18th), and the former World Champ Joe McKeehen (26th).
Bryce Yockey Wins Event #51: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship
There was a yin, and yang feel to the final table of Event #51: $10,000 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8-or-Better Championship. Representing the dark side, minus his Darth Vadar visor, was the much-maligned Chris Ferguson, a five-time bracelet winner, whose mere presence at the table gets to you on a visceral level. And then there was everyone else.
But unless you are a script writer for House of Cards, we all know that the dark side never wins, and thankfully that was the case in this one. Bryce Yockey fighting off the impressive challenge of the former Full Tilt man to win his first career bracelet.
And Ferguson wasn’t Yockey’s only problem. Two-time bracelet winner, Josh Arieh, was still thrashing around in the deep end, and Player of the Year wannabe, Ray Henson, was cashing for the eighth time this summer, making his fourth final table.
But it was to be Yockey’s day, and the lad deserves it after coming so close in 2009, 2011, and 2015. Yockey defeated Jeremy Joseph in heads-up action after a short, sharp, and shrift encounter that was all about Bryce Yockey.
Final Table Results
1. Bryce Yockey – $511,147
2. Jeremy Joseph – $315,911
3. Josh Arieh – $216,077
4. Chris Ferguson – $150,929
5. Quentin Krueger – $107,709
6. Christopher Roth – $78,569
7. Ray Henson – $58,612
8. Kate Hoang – $44,738
9. Bruce Yamron – $34,959
Other players who lowered their needle deep into the groove of this one were Mark “Dipthrong” Herm (10th), multiple bracelet winner John Monnette (16th), and the former Aussie Millions winner Ari Engel (17th).
