EVENT #56: $5,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold'em
ENTRIES: 454
PRIZE POOL: $2,133,800
FIRST PLACE PRIZE: $490,800
PLACES PAID: 54
Kevin Macphee wins the gold bracelet just a few weeks after finishing fourth in an event.
MacPhee collects his fifth cash of the year and second final table.
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: Kevin MacPhee
Age: 34
Current Residence: Coeur D Alene, Idaho
Marital Status: Single
Children: 0
Profession: Professional Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 26
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 3
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories: 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 4th (2015 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em)
Total WSOP Earnings: $1,094,065
[Note: All statistics above include the results of this tournament]
Kevin MacPhee has won the $5,000 Turbo No-Limit Hold'em event to earn his first gold bracelet and the top prize of $490,800. This victory comes on the heels of a fourth place finish in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event and marks his fifth cash of the summer.
Although the tournament was a turbo, it still ran late into the night on Day 2. The tournament had a chance of ending much sooner when Pascal Theodosiadis had chance to score a double knock-out for the bracelet. With three players remaining, Theodosiadis was faced with two all-ins in front of him after opening the pot with a raise. He had both of his opponents covered, but decided to wait for a better spot and folded his pocket queens face up. The board ran out in what would have been Theodosiadis' favor. Things then went in the wrong direction for Theodosiadis and he ended up losing most of his stack to MacPhee in a hand where Theodosiadis had ace-king and MacPhee had pocket kings.
The final table rail for this event was loud and rowdy, pumping energy into the Amazon room. It was a busy night in the Amazon with the $10K PLO event on the main stage and the Ladies Championship on the secondary final table. This final table was left out in the middle of the Amazon and still drew a bigger crowd than the other two final tables. The rail was mostly comprised of French and Ukrainian supporters, but there were handful of others supporting the Americans, including MacPhee as well. Things were loud the entire time with the fans cheering their hearts out. Eventually the tournament was paused and moved to another section of the Amazon that was more conducive for the fans because the rail had grown too much for its original location.
"It's all in good fun and it doesn't rattle me at all. I know that everyone is just trying to have a good time," said MacPhee about the exuberant rail.
This turbo event was the third and final turbo event of the 2015 WSOP. The other two turbos were $1,000 buy-ins and one of them was Hyper-Hold'em, which featured 20 minute levels. This turbo event had 30 minutes levels on Day 1 and 40 minute levels on Day 2. A standard WSOP event has 60 minute levels
MacPhee is no stranger to the turbo structured event. He has played hundreds of tournament with this type of structure across seas as well as online.
"I am pretty used to the format. I play a lot of turbos online. I use my push fold calculators very methodically when I play online, so for me I feel like it's a pretty good event, said MacPhee about the turbo event.
The two-day event drew 454 players to create a $2,133,800 prize pool with the top 54 finishers earning a cash.
*****
Following MacPhee’s finish in the top spot, the descending order of results was as follows:
Second Place: Igor Yaroshevskyy finished runner-up. This marks his 10th WSOP cash and first final table. He cashed twice each year from 2012-2014. This year he has already cashed four times with still a few events remaining. All of Yaroshevskyy's cashes have come in No-Limit Hold'em.
Third Place: Pascal Theodosiadis, from New York, New York, recorded his second career WSOP cash with this third place finish. His first cash came last year in a $2,500 No-Limit Hold'em event. He now has just over $200,000 in WSOP tournament earnings.
Fourth Place: Eric Sfez, one of the two Europeans to make the final table, hails from France. This marks Sfez's third career WSOP cash. He finished in 31st place in the 2013 WSOP Europe Main Event.
Fifth Place: Scott Vener earned his first career final table finish in this event. The 40-year-old from Los Angeles, California is the music supervisor for the hit HBO series, Entourage. Previous to this fifth place finish, Venner's best WSOP result was 13th place finish in a 2010 No-Limit Hold'em event. He now has seven career WSOP cashes and his tournament earnings are approaching $200,000.
Sixth Place: Tristan Wade just missed out on a second gold bracelet with a sixth place exit. Wade, from Boynton Beach, Florida, won a gold bracelet in a No-Limit Hold'em Shootout event at the 2011 World Series of Poker Europe. Wade also has a Circuit gold ring. He won the Palm Beach Kennel Club's Circuit Main Event last August for just over $100,000.
Seventh Place: Hung Tran, born in Vietnam, now resides in San Jose, California. This marks Tran's second career WSOP cash and first final table.
Eighth Place: Joshua Field finished in eighth place for $50,208. The California native has now racked up 17 WSOP cashes plus four more ofrom the Circuit. This marks Field's largest ever WSOP cash.Ninth Place: Martin Kozlov, from Melbourne Australia, earned his 8th career WSOP cash with this ninth place finish. In his WSOP career, Kozlov has reached two final tables at the WSOP APAC series and one final table at WSOP Europe series, but this is his first ever WSOP final table in Las Vegas. His cash of $38,984 pushes Kozlov's total WSOP tournament earnings over $100,000.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS:
Other notables to add a cash to their WSOP resume from this event include David Benefield (12th), Shannon Shorr (17th), Eric Baldwin (32nd), Stephen Chidwick (36th), and Mike Watson (49th).
For MacPhee's official player profile page, visit:
(Note: Will appear 48 hours after event concludes)