When Scott Seiver first sat down at the final table of Event #21 ($5,000 No Limit Hold 'em) the 23-year-old Las Vegas resident was the clear favorite to win. The young poker pro had nearly one third of the chips on the nine-handed table, the result of a huge Day 2 rush that was capped off when Seiver flopped a set against one of the other big stacks, Michael Mizrachi, sending the two time World Poker Tour champion to the rail.
Seiver was competing against a final table that didn't have big names but did have skill and experience. Among the final table players was WSOP bracelet owner Anders Henriksson, Event #3 runner-up Jacobo Fernandez, 21-year-old poker pro Ben Sprengers, and Scott "SCTrojans08" Freeman, the 19th place finisher in the 2007 Main Event and one of the most successful online tournament players out there.
When play got underway at the final table Seiver immediately increased his stack by winning a race with pocket queens against Freeman's ace-king. Seiver went on to win 6 of the first 11 pots, setting the pace for the final table and letting the other players know he wasn't planning on sitting on his chip stack.
Seiver maintained his lead without any major setbacks until he was down to heads-up play against David Seidman, a 30-year-old Chicago-based risk manager attending his fourth WSOP. The heads-up battle lasted almost 45 minutes and ended when Seidman, severely out-chipped, called an all-in re-raise on a flop of 9-7-3. Seidman showed A-7 and needed to come from behind against Seiver's K-9. The turn and river ran out 5-3 and Seiver hugged and high-fived his group of supporters, which included Justin Bonomo on his break from his event.
Seiver went wire-to-wire to win his first WSOP bracelet and $755,891, one of the biggest cash prizes of the 2008 WSOP so far. David Seidman collects $482,372 for his 2nd place finish and his second WSOP cash.
"It's pretty awesome, I have to admit," Seiver said. "There are hundreds and thousands of players and every year the fields grow bigger and bigger, so the fact that I've actually got one of these now is pretty wild."
For a complete payouts see the WSOP Results page.