Felix Stephensen was just eliminated from the 2014 Main Event. He finished in 2nd place, earning $5,147,911.
Stephensen, the sole representative from Norway at this year's final table, told a fascinating story about how he ended up entering the Main Event. Over the summer, during soccer's World Cup, he and a friend each bet $1,000 on The Netherlands to beat Australia by a score of exactly 3-2. What were the odds on that? He got 60 to 1 on the wager. When it came through and the game landed 3-2, he decided to use part of his winnings to enter the WSOP Main Event.
That turned out to be his wisest investment of all.
Following the four-month hiatus, Stephensen entered the final table ranked second in chips. He briefly took over the chip lead early on Monday, and appeared to be a favorite to win it all. However, his progress stalled there, and he spent the next several hours either trying to protect his stack, or slowly bleeding away chips. He regained some momentum late on Monday, and made it to Tuesday along with Jorryt van Hoof and Martin Jacobson.
Stephensen was third in chips when play resumed on Tuesday afternoon, but managed to double up through Van Hoof early. Losing that hand send Van Hoof spiraling steadily downward, while Stephensen's play remained solid, until Van Hoof was ultimately eliminated in 3rd place. At that point, though, his final rival Jacobson held a commanding chip lead which Stephensen was unable to overcome. On the final hand, his lost to Jacobson's after Jacobson flopped a set.
Despite the sting of defeat, Stephenson will undoubtedly look on his performance and take great pride. He and his supporters from Norway made the finale a fun experience, many of them wearing viking helmets with horns. The posse watched as another Scandanavian however, ended up with the WSOP gold bracelet.
Here are the final table results:
1st - Martin Jacobson - $10,000,000
2nd - Felix Stephensen - $5,147,911
3rd - Jorryt van Hoof - $3,807,753
4th - William Tonking - $2,849,763
5th - Billy Pappaconstantinou - $2,143,794
6th - Andoni Larrabe - $1,622,471
7th - Dan Sindelar - $1,236,084
8th - Bruno Politano - $947,172
9th - Mark Newhouse - $730,725