DAVID PROCIAK WINS $1,500 BUY-IN SEVEN-CARD STUD HIGH-LOW SPLIT TOURNAMENT
Florida business owner collects $156,546 top prize in Event #60
In his first year to attend WSOP, Prociak win’s poker’s most coveted prize
Brandon Shack-Harris nearly wins a second gold bracelet in ‘16, but instead finishes as runner up
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: David Prociak
Age: 33
Current Residence: Kissimmee, FL
Profession: Business Owner
Number of WSOP Cashes: 3
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 30th (2016)
Total WSOP Earnings: $162,526
Personal Facts: Started playing poker less than a year ago
Winner’s Quote:
“I just started playing poker last October. That’s when I started playing in tournaments. I’ve been doing very well in tournaments lately. So, I decided to come to the series.”
David Prociak is the newest member of poker’s gold bracelet club.
The small business owner from Kissimmee, FL won the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament, which was played over three days and nights and concluded on the ESPN main stage at the Rio in Las Vegas.
Prociak collected $156,546 in prize money, making this the biggest win of his career. In fact, this was just his third cash in a WSOP event, all of which have occurred this summer. Prociak previously finished in-the-money in a mixed event (Omaha and Stud) as well as the Colossus.
Incredibly, Prociak only started playing poker seriously less than a year ago. He began playing in the local cardroom in Tampa, mostly taking the game as a recreation. Earlier this year Prociak finished second in a major event held at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, FL. He decided to come to Las Vegas for this entire series. That resulted in a gold bracelet victory.
“I came out here to play in the cash games, but also to play in the tournaments, too,” Prociak said. “This was the 12th event I’ve entered this summer – including a few of the $10K events.”
Prociak won his victory by coming out on top at a final table which included three gold bracelet winners – including Brandon Shack-Harris, John Monnette, and Calvin Anderson. Indeed, the entire field was stacked with big names and lots of experience, which was quite in juxtaposition to the latest winner’s more limited WSOP background. This was also one of the older player fields of the summer. The average age of participants was 46.
“I was thinking about this earlier today, that there are so many great players out there who haven’t won a gold bracelet,” Prociak said. “And, here I was in a position to win a bracelet – and now I’ve won a bracelet. It’s just amazing to me.”
The final moment of triumph came after a tough and lengthy heads-up battle. Prociak scooped the final pot of the tournament, holding two pair against Shack-Harris, who finished as the runner up.
This tourney attracted 521 entrants which created a prize pool totaling $703,350. The top 79 finishers collected prize money.
Aside from the winner, here’s a brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table:
Second Place: Brandon Shack-Harris, from Chicago, IL came close to winning his second gold bracelet of the summer. However, he couldn’t accumulate chips late and ended up busting after putting up a good fight. Shack-Harris, who owns two bracelets already (2014, 2016) collected $96,750. Incredibly, this was his seventh top-3 finish since 2012.
Third Place: John Monnette, Palmdale, CA was short-stacked during much of the finale but still managed to come in third. The two-time gold bracelet winner (2011, 2012) has now cashed seven time at this year’s series. More impressive, he’s posted five top-10 finishes. Monnette now has 48 career in-the-money finishes at the WSOP after going to the window in this event for a $66,601 payout.
Fourth Place: Alex Livingston, from Halifax, NS (Canada), a former chess champion, didn’t quite add a poker title to his resume. Still, me managed to collect $46,652 for fourth place, which was his deepest run in any WSOP event. Livingston also came close to making a previous November Nine. He came in 13th place in poker’s world championship three years ago, which paid out $451K. This marked his seventh time to cash in a series event.
Fifth Place: Louis Russo, an attorney and trader from Brooklyn, NY finished in fifth place, which paid $33,263. Russo now has seven cashes at the WSOP. This was his first time to appear at a final table.
Sixth Place: Gaurav Kalro, from Las Vegas, NV cashed for the third time this summer, and eighth occasion overall. Sixth place paid $24,148.
Seventh Place: Jameson Painter, from Las Vegas, NV has enjoyed an impressive summer, making two final table at the ’16 series. He came really close to a victory in the $1,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple Draw, finishing second. This time, he took seventh place, which paid $17,855. Painter now has 21 cashes on his WSOP resume.
Eighth Place: Calvin Anderson, from Yukon, OK was one of three former gold bracelet winners among the final eight. However, Anderson busted out first with the low stack. Anderson won his victory two years ago in this same event, and could have been one of the few two-time winners. Instead, he had to settle for eighth place, which paid $13,452.
This was the 60th official event on this year’s schedule. This leaves 9 gold bracelet events still to go in what promises to be the biggest and most exciting WSOP ever.
OTHER NOTABLE IN-THE MONEY FINISHERS:
Arash Ghaneian, a gold bracelet winner (2015), finished in 15th place.
Phillip Hui, a gold bracelet winner (2014), finished in 16th place.
Andy Bloch, a gold bracelet winner (2012), finished in 23rd place. This marked his 45th career cash at the series.
Denis Ethier, a gold bracelet winner (2005), finished in 28th place.
Daniel Negreanu, a six-time gold bracelet winner and member of the Poker Hall of Fame, cashed in 30th place.
Daniel Idema, a three-time gold bracelet winner (2011, 2013, 2015), took 38th place.
Aaron Steury, a gold bracelet winner (2011), finished in 40th place.
Francesco Barbaro, a gold bracelet winner (2011), came in 43rd.
Carol Fuchs, a gold bracelet winner (2015), finished in 46th place.
Svetlana Gromenkova, a gold bracelet winner (2008) and former Ladies World Poker Champion, came in 48th.
Tony Ma, a two-time gold bracelet winner (1996, 2000) and Card Player Magazine’s former “Player of the Year,” came in 55th.
Joe McKeehen, a gold bracelet winner (2015) and the reigning world poker champion, finished in 61st place. This was his fourth cash of the summer.
Frankie O’Dell, a two-time gold bracelet winner (2003, 2007), came in 65th.
Naoya Kihara, a gold bracelet winner (2012) who was Japan’s first-ever WSOP champion, came in 73rd.
Ben Yu, a gold bracelet winner (2015), came in 71st.
Mike Leah, a gold bracelet winner (2014), finished 74th.
Allen Cunningham, a five-time gold bracelet winner and the 2005 WSOP “Player of the Year, finished in 77th place.
Other notable players who cashed included – Bryan Devonshire, Al “Sugar Bear” Barbieri, Mark Gregorich, Jimmy Fricke, Danny Wong, Victor Ramdin, Yuval Bronshtein, Greg “Great White” Pappas, Jeanne David, and Corey Zeidman.
FUN FACTS:
The ages of participants ranged from 21 to 92. The eldest player in the field was Constantine Zdanowic.
The average player age was 46. This was the highest of any open event (non-Seniors tournaments) at this year’s series.
The breakdown of player nationalities for this event was 486 Americans and 85 players from elsewhere. The top five nations represented were the United States, Russia, Canada, Great Britain, and Austria. This was the first time Russian players made up the second-highest player percentage of entries.
The breakdown of participants by gender was 92.2 percent males and 7.8 percent females. This was one of the highest percentages of females in any event this year.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s official final results (listing all players who finished in-the-money), please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/tournaments/results.asp?grid=1232&tid=14960
For David Prociak’s official player profile page, please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=215624
For the live reporting logs for this event, please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=1232&tid=14960
To access licensed images from this all other 2016 WSOP gold bracelet events, please visit:
www.pokerphotoarchive.com
For the live stream archive of this event, please visit:
http://www.lnmandiya.com/videos/?vcat=2
(Note: Will appear 48 hours after event concludes)