The 27-year-old poker player Brian Yoon managed to outlast a field of 6 716 players to secure the title for a third time, adding third WSOP gold bracelet to his collection and the life-changing cash prize of $1,094,349 in Event #47: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack, which took place in Las Vegas.
This is the third time for Yoon, in which he plays on a WSOP final table and actually wins the first prize. It was 2013, when the player managed to conquer his first gold bracelet from the Series in a $1,111 No Limit Hold’em Little One Drop event. Currently, Yoon’s poker earnings are estimated to be $2,590,020, after scooping more than $1 million from the Monster Stack Event.
However, the poker field welcomed 6 716 players. The great interest in the event had swollen the guaranteed prize pool up to $9,066,600. The event continued for 4 days, and it was Wednesday night, 28th June, when Yoon was announced as the winner.
The final official table met Ihar Soika in the position of the chip-leader. At that moment, Yoon was the player, who was holding the second biggest stack of chips. Both players kept their stack-leading positions during the final-table game.
The three-handed battle was entered by Yoon, Soika and Stanley Lee. With a significant advantage over Lee, it was not a big deal for Yoon to eliminate his opponent, sending him home with $501,353 in cash.
Thus, Yoon added a significant amount of chips to his stack, grabbing Soika’s chip-lead position just under his nose before the beginning of the heads-up battle. Nevertheless, being experienced and strategic poker player, Soika managed to melt Yoon’s chip advantage to re-establish himself as the chip-lead. Yoon, on the other hand, managed to control his emotions, which was decisive for the player’s game.
Even though Yoon needed to struggle for the gold against the poker heavyweight Ihar Soika, he managed to gain the upper over his opponent. It was the 106th hand, which was the decisive one for both opponents. Brian Yoon raised to 2,000,000 and his Belarusian opponent Soika placed all his chips towards the centre of the table – 19,800,000.
Yoon called Ihar’s all-in bet after some time of consideration and the cards were already in the air. Yoon was holding [Kh][10h] against Soika’s [As][8s]. [Js][5s][2h] flopped on the board, giving Soika a flush draw.
At that moment, he was still ahead of Yoon, placing hopes that the turn or the river will give him a flush. The turn appeared to be a blank draw for both players, as the dealer turned [7d]. The river ran out [10d] on the board, only to derail Soika and give Yoon the first prize.
Despite being exhaustive and tough, the two-handed play was more than interesting. The intensity of the game came from the fact that the two players are experienced and they transferred the chip-lead position between each other. Soika was a close shave to the victory, but the cards allotted Yoon to take the title.
