News
BRIAN YOON WINS FIRST FIRST GOLD BRACELET
Jul 07 2013 08:37 PM EST
Brian Yoon won one of the final gold bracelet events of this year's WSOP by reigning victorious in The Little One for One Drop –a $1,111 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em tournament.
Little One for One Drop was the third charity-related competition in partnership between the World Series of Poker and the One Drop Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water to the developing world and creating greater awareness as to the scarcity of water in many parts of the world. The million-dollar buy-in Big One for One Drop was held last year. The One Drop High Roller event took place earlier at this series.
Of the three One Drop events, Brian Yoon can claim he overcame the biggest hurdle, outlasting a field of 4,756 entrieswho participated in the unusual five-day tournament. An extra day had to be added to play because the field size was so large. He collected $663,727 in prize money, plus his first gold bracelet.
Yoon is a 23-year-old professional poker player from Torrance, CA. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics last year. However, Yoon now mostly stacks chips and makes bank deposits as a result of playing both live tournaments and online poker. His life as an online poker player currently requires that he spend some of his time in Canada, where he can play legally.
His victory was the fifth cash of his career at the WSOP, and first final table appearance. This was his first major tournament victory. Yoon's most notable previous showing was a 58th-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, which paid $130,997.
MEET GOLD BRACELET WINNER – BRIAN YOON
WSOP Career Earnings: $815,229
INTERVIEW WITH THE CHAMPION
Yoon: Strangely, I don't really feel anything right now. I don't think it's quite sunk in yet. Maybe tomorrow I will feel different, but for right now, it doesn't really feel like I won.
Yoon: It's great. I haven't really had a breakthrough win or anything like that yet. So, this is great to put on my resume and have people take me a lot more seriously now.
Yoon: I have been going back and forth between Los Angeles and Vancouver (Canada). I play in LA, but also play online, so I have to go to Canada. After this, I will probably go back to Vancouver so I can play in (online tournaments).
Yoon: The charity aspect was cool. I've played most of the No-Limit tournaments, from the $1K to the $2K events. This was another tournament to me, so that's why I entered. But it's great there's a charity aspect to it.
Yoon: Day One was pretty standard. Then on Day Two, I had to crawl to get into the money. I was at 15 big blinds coming into the money, so I had to play a little tighter just before that. Then, I went on and seemed to win every coin flip, and every 70-30 situation, and then, when I lost one, it was for just a few of my chips. I won the big pots that really mattered. After Day Two, I had one of the biggest stacks and I just carried it over. That really gave me an edge.
Yoon: It went really fast. No one really had any chips and so I could just fire it in there and things worked out.
Yoon: Yes, I'm playing tomorrow.
Little One for One Drop was the third charity-related competition in partnership between the World Series of Poker and the One Drop Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to providing clean water to the developing world and creating greater awareness as to the scarcity of water in many parts of the world. The million-dollar buy-in Big One for One Drop was held last year. The One Drop High Roller event took place earlier at this series.
Of the three One Drop events, Brian Yoon can claim he overcame the biggest hurdle, outlasting a field of 4,756 entrieswho participated in the unusual five-day tournament. An extra day had to be added to play because the field size was so large. He collected $663,727 in prize money, plus his first gold bracelet.
Yoon is a 23-year-old professional poker player from Torrance, CA. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in economics last year. However, Yoon now mostly stacks chips and makes bank deposits as a result of playing both live tournaments and online poker. His life as an online poker player currently requires that he spend some of his time in Canada, where he can play legally.
His victory was the fifth cash of his career at the WSOP, and first final table appearance. This was his first major tournament victory. Yoon's most notable previous showing was a 58th-place finish in the 2011 WSOP Main Event, which paid $130,997.
MEET GOLD BRACELET WINNER – BRIAN YOON
Name: Brian Yoon
Current Residence: Torrance, CA (USA)
Birthplace: Los Angeles, CA (USA)
Age: 23
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Professional Poker Player
Speciality: Tournament Poker
Prior Occupation: College Student
Education: Degree in Economics (UCLA)
WSOP Cashes (including this event): 5
First WSOP Cash (year): 2011
WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
WSOP Wins (with this victory): 1
INTERVIEW WITH THE CHAMPION
WSOP: How does it feel to win your first WSOP gold bracelet?
WSOP: Surely, this win does a lot for you as a professional poker player.
WSOP: Where do you play poker mostly?
WSOP: What did you think of the Little One for One Drop idea?
WSOP: Can you tell us how you progressed along in this tournament?
WSOP: How did the final table go for you?
WSOP: Are you playing in the Main Event?
