Kevin Eyster Wins Event #24: $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em ($622,998)!
Kevin Eyster is an accomplished poker player on both the virtual and live felt. At just 24 years old, "1SickDisease" has more than $3 million in online winnings and while there are many young poker professionals that have terrific online results, there aren't many that boast the live accomplishments that Eyster can. With a World Series of Poker circuit ring and his name inscribed on the WPT Champions Cup already, Eyster now can add a coveted WSOP gold bracelet to his list of accolades, along with the $622,998 first-place prize.
Event #24: $5,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em drew 541 entrants and generated a prize pool $2,542,700. After 10 levels on Day 1, only 129 players survived and Eyster was one of them, bagging a stack of 73,800, good for 41st in chips. Another 10 levels on Day 2 and Eyster found himself among the remaining 17 players and eighth on the leader board with 477,000. When the unofficial final table of seven players was reached on Day 3, Eyster held the chip lead and after eliminating Mustapha Kanit in seventh place, he further extended his advantage.
To say it was smooth sailing from that point forward, though, would be wrong. Five capable players stood between Eyster and WSOP gold. It would take about three hours and 56 hands before the first elimination at the final table occurred, when Jeremy Kottler sent David Borrat to the rail in sixth place. Kotter fell shortly thereafter, kicking off a tumultuous four-handed battle that saw each player hold the chip lead over the course of the following 28 hands before Bryn Kenney fell in fourth place.
Andrew Lichtenberger began three-handed play with the chip lead, but ultimately succumbed to a third-place finish at the hands of Eyster. Pierre Neuville began heads-up play with a slight chip lead, but Eyster wasted little time in erasing it. When Day 3 play wrapped up, Eyster held more than a 2-to-1 chip lead and closed it out in less than an hour on Day 4 to capture his first gold bracelet.
Congratulations to Kevin Eyster on his fantastic achievement!
That does it for our coverage of Event #24 of the 45th-annual World Series of Poker, but stay tuned as we offer coverage for every single bracelet event!