Congratulations to Sean Getzwiller, Winner of Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem ($611,185)!
After four days of battle over five calender days, the 2011 World Series of Poker now has an Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem Champion with Sean Getzwiller victorious!
Kicking off over the weekend with two day one starting flights, 4,178 players took to the felt to form a prizepool of $3,760,200 which saw 423 players head home with their wallets or purses a little heavier in cash. Although branded by players and poker media as the donkament that features amateurs with only a few hours on the felt along with seasoned veterans and online professionals who have logged millions of hours - it still takes some skill and combined run good to make it deep.
Players such as Valdemar Kwaysser (420th), Jason Koon (412th), Dan Heimiller (392nd), Kyle Bowker (389th), Sam Barnhart (385th), Bryn Kenney (280th), Marc Karam (270th), Allie Prescott (221st), Gavin Griffin (215th), Kathy Liebert (204th), Alexander Kravchenko (177th), Ylon Schwartz (174th), Layne Flack (95th), Jonathan Duhamel (54th), Young Phan (52nd), Eric Mizrachi (50th), Ana Marquez (32nd), Albert Kim (31st), David Peters (29th) and Jordan “Jymaster11” Young (19th) all managed to turn on their run-good switch at the right time, but it still didn't secure them a place on our final table.
Those fortunate nine would all be moved to the bright lights of the Thunder-Dome where they would battle back-and-forth trading blows as one-by-one they fell to the rail until just six remained and the now well-known card controversy was uncovered. With a manufacturing fault on some of the cards, but on all the 
, the final six were moved to an outer table where the muck wasn't visible due to the lack of bright lights.
From their play stalled until the final few hands where play was reduced to three-handed play, and action was paused for the night. Returning today saw Jon "PearlJammer" Turner chasing vindication as long-time professional, but his run would end early when his pocket eights were cracked.
With Sean Getzwiller and Sadan Turker virtually even in chips, the two would fight one of the most brutal heads-up battles that would last nearly six hours! A never-ending run of lead changes mixed with double-after-double saw the two players look physically distraught at every bad beat and lucky card their opponent caught. Eventually it would be Las Vegas-based professional Getzwiller who would get the better of Turker as he denied the British a third bracelet within just a few days.
| Place | Prize |
|---|---|
| 1st | Sean Getzwiller |
| 2nd | Sadan Turker |
| 3rd | Jon Turner |
| 4th | Max Weinberg |
| 5th | Stefan Raffay |
| 6th | Lawrence Riley |
| 7th | Hunter Frey |
| 8th | Daniel Haglund |
| 9th | Odette Tremblay |
For Getzwiller, this marks his ninth WSOP cash and now has a hundred-percent strike-rate from final tables after dispatching opponent-after-opponent on his way to standing atop the 4,178-player field. Getzwiller not only showed bouts of aggression, but also key timing in important pots as well as combining that with huge and gutsy calls.
PokerNews is happy to congratulate Sean Getzwiller on an excellently played tournament that saw him handle the vicious heads-up battle to be awarded the coveted gold bracelet, $611,185 in prizemoney as well as title of Event #8: $1,000 No-Limit Holdem Champion!