2016 WSOP
Corey Thompson, a 27-year-old professional player from Florida earned his first World Series of Poker bracelet and the main prize of $221,163 in the $1,000 buy-in Turbo competition, which pulled in 1,397 entrants, creating a prize pool of $1,257,300 which enabled 210 finishers to cash.
The turbo structured format meant that the tournament incorporated 30 minute levels, instead of the usual hour long duration, but the final table still took 116 hands to complete, ending in a 60-hand, hour-long heads up between Thompson (who started holding a 3 to 1 chip lead) and German ace Enrico Rudelitz.
The German pro showed his mettle in staging a major comeback to take the lead at one point, but Thompson stuck to his guns and played back into the lead to finally take the game, leaving Rudelitz with a well-earned second placing pay day of $136,651.
The win was Thompsons largest to date, eclipsing the $131,000 he claimed last year when he took down a Heartland Poker Tour competition.
Other final table cashes included:
William Liang $97,811
Darren Terazawa $70,821
Ankit Ahuja $51,878
Terry Fan $38,452
Matthew Chang $28,842
Ryan Pochedly $21,897
Benjamin Reinhart $16,827