WSOPC Event #11: $1,700 MAIN EVENT

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.  Then 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.