Brandon Wong, a 38-year-old pro player from Fresno, California, has similarly found that WSOP bracelets have in the past eluded him, the most recent earlier this year when he was runner up to Phil Ivey in an APAC epic. Wong has previously had the frustration of 21 cashes at WSOP – two of them as runner-up – but no cigar.
But this time around, event 50 – a $2,500 buy-in Six-Handed 10-Game Mix at last delivered his first WSOP bracelet and the $220,061 first-place prize.
372 entries were recorded for the event, building a prize pool of $846,300; among the players were pros like Scott Fischman, Freddy Deeb, Gavin Smith, Scotty Nguyen, Robert Williamson III, Marcel Luske, Shawn Buchanan, Vanessa Selbst, Greg Raymer, Scott Abrams, Bruno Fitoussi, Mike Wattel, Loren Klein and Tom McCormick, with Abrams and Klein both making the final table.
It was an America vs. Britain heads up when Wong faced Sebastian Saffari, with Wong holding a small chip advantage which he was able to leverage into such a lead that Saffari's exit with runner-up money of $135,932 became inevitable.
Other final table pay-outs were:
Philip Sternheimer $87,397
Christopher George $57,954
Scott Abrams $39,564
Loren Klein $27,792