Congratulations to Hasan Anter: Event #56 Champion ($777,928)!
We played an unscheduled Day 4 today due to another massive field of 3,389 players that entered Event #56. With such a large prizepool and so much money at stake, it was well worth it to Hasan Anter who not only came out victorious, but did it in rare and stylish form.
We began Day 3 with 42 players but eliminated all but three competitors. Gavin Smith (12th), Bryan Paris (11th) and Bryn Kenney (10th) all finished just outside the official final table. James Boyle and Ryan Goindoo exited the final table first as both of them failed to win a race to save their tournament life. Then it was Anter run good time. His 
eliminated Rayan Nathan, just before he cracked the 
of John Horvatich with 
all in preflop. Just after John Borzio was eliminated, Anter busted Selim Oulmekki when his 
held against Oulmekki's 
on a 
board to end the night.
Hasan Anter had over half the chips in the tournament at the beginning of play today and his heater picked right back up where it left off. He was able to make fours full of eights on the river to cripple Andy Philachack and immediately grabbed the momentum. It was just a few hands later that Philachack's 
didn't hold up against the 
of Nemer Haddad. This set up a fantastic heads up battle between Haddad and Anter.
Anter began the match with approximately a three to one chip lead and despite winning the first major pot of heads up play found himself almost dead even in chips after just a dozen or so hands. Luckily, he was able to take charge again to take a strong lead before doubling Haddad up when his 
couldn't get there agains the 
of Haddad. However, Anter's relentless aggression heads up eventually paid huge divideds. It wasn't long before he retook the chip lead by forcing Haddad off a hand by moving all in on a 
board. A few hands later, he took back full control when he forced Haddad off another large pot.
This caused Haddad to get short enough that he had to three-bet shove with . While essentially flipping against the 
of Anter, he found himself in a lot of trouble on the 
flop. The 
turn ended things and officially gave the 56th gold bracelet awarded at the 2011 World Series of Poker to Hasan Anter. However, the magic of Anter wasn't over. The dealer put down the meaningless river which almost went unnoticed... it was the giving Anter a royal flush!
To our knowledge, no other bracelet winner has taken down the tournament with a royal flush which is why we offer extra congratulations to Hasan Anter, winner of $777,928 and his very first gold bracelet!