Gregory Merson Wins $10,000 Buy-In No-Limit Hold’em (Event #57)
Captures First WSOP Gold Bracelet and $1,136,197 Top Prize
Las Vegas, NV (July 6, 2012) – It may simply be known as “Event #57,” but the No-Limit Hold’em tournament that ended after just one hand today was bigger and richer than every single WSOP Main Event Championship held up through 1999.
The $10,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em tournament attracted 474 entrants – nothing out of the ordinary in the modern poker era. However, the latest champion earned a whopping $1,136,197 in prize money – which is the third-largest prize of this year’s WSOP.
The winner was Gregory Merson.
He is a 24-year-old poker pro from Laurel, MD.
Merson not only received the game’s most coveted prize – the gold bracelet, but the satisfaction that he beat one of the toughest fields in recent memory in doing so. This was his first WSOP victory.
Merson defeated an incredibly stacked field in this short-handed event. Since being introduced in 2009, the Six-Handed format continues to draw some of the most star-studded fields of the summer, and this Championship event was no exception.
Merson had to last three long days and nights and then come back and play one final hand on a fourth day to close out his tough final adversary.
The runner up was Keith Lehr, a.k.a. "Lehr Jet" of Bossier City, Louisiana who won a nice consolation prize of $701,757.
The more comprehensive official report of this tournament, with much more news and official data, will be posted soon to WSOP.com.
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-- by Nolan Dalla