Matt Graham WSOPMatt Graham from New Orleans dream came true on July 2nd when he won his first ever World Series of Poker bracelet in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event. Taking first place earned Graham $278,180 along with bragging rights.

This has been an solid World Series for Graham as he has cashed twice so far in the events. In Event #1 he earned just over $23,000 and Event #4 he cashed in for $10,922. With his massive first place finish he now has a career live tournament winnings that exceeds over $450,000 and being only 24 years old we can expect this number to grow significantly.

The shootout event was only a 2 day event that started with 823 poker players and would be the last preliminary event of the World Series of Poker. Day 2 of the tournament continued in round 2 with 72 of 90 players remaining and there was many high profile players remaining that included, Jimmy “Gobboboy” Fricke, Tony Bloom, Kenna James, Hoyt Corkins, and several others.

Only 9 players advanced to the final table and they all started with the same amount of chips because of the shootout format. The 9 players that made up the final table include:

Seat 1: Jean-Robert Bellande
Seat 2: Danny Wong
Seat 3: Spencer Lawrence
Seat 4: Matt Graham
Seat 5: Andrew Prock
Seat 6: Michael Kachan
Seat 7: Brandon Wong
Seat 8: John Kranyak
Seat 9: Joe De Niro

Michael Kachan was the first player to be eliminated in 9th place after he raised preflop and received calls from Jean-Robert Bellande, Brandon Wong, Danny Wong, and Spencer Lawrence. The flop came Ac-7h-6h and Wong came out betting, Lawrence folded and Kachan raised all in. Wong folded and Belande re-raised again and Danny Wong called. When the turn fell a 4 of diamonds both players checked. The river was a Q of diamonds and Danny Wong bet and Bellande folded. Wong showed Ad-Kh for a pair of aces with nut kicker. Kachan mucked his hand and became the first causality of the final table and earned $7,526 for his efforts.

The next player to fall as Andrew Prock when he put all his chips in with Ac-Qs against Joe De Niro who held As-Jh. The board ran A-J-3-K-8 and De Niro was able to pull off a huge suck out and eliminate Prock. He earned $10,335 for his 8th place finish.

A few hands later John Kranyak found himself joining Andrew Prock on the rail when he and De Niro played a capped hand preflop and the board flop fell 9s-4s-3h. Kranyak bet, De Niro called and the turn was a Ace of hearts. Kranyak got the rest of his chips in and the players revealed:

Kranyak: As-Jh
De Niro Ac-Qs

Kranyak needed a jack to hit the river to keep his tournament dreams alive, but the river fell a queen and Kranyak was out in 7th place and taking home $13,480.

The next player to fall was Spencer Lawrence who was all in preflop against Jean-Robert Bellande. The players held:

Bellande: As-9d
Lawrence: Kd-10s

The board ran: 9-3-6-2-Q and Bellande pair of 9’s held up on the flop and eliminated Lawrence in 6 place. Lawrence received $20,221 worth of prize money.

Bellande raised preflop and Danny Wong called, the flop fell Ah-5d-6h. Bellande checked called a bet from Wong and the same thing happened on the turn when a 6 of diamonds fell. The river was another 6 and this time Bellande bet and Wong called and was all in. Bellande showed an Ace, which made aces full of sixes. Wong mucked and finished in fifth place earning $33,701

Another Wong was eliminated, Brandon Wong that is, a few hands later when he and Matt Graham called two bets cold from a raise from Joe De Niro. The call put Wong all in and when the flop came 2c-8c-10s Graham bet and De Niro folded. Wong and Graham revealed their hands:

Wong: Ac-2s
Graham: 8d-9d

The board ended being 2c-8c-10s-5s-Ks and a pair of 8’s were good enough to send Brandon Wong to the rail in fourth place, which was worth $69,088.

The heads up players were determined when Joe De Niro was eliminated in 3rd place and took home $107,845. On a flop of 8h-Jh-10c De Niro put all his chips in and was against Jean Robert Bellande. The players held:

Bellande: Ah-9h
De Niro: Jd-9d

The 8-J-10 was a great flop for De Niro and had Bellande drawing to a chop or a an ace for the win. The river fell an ace and eliminated De Niro in third place.

There were now two players remaining out of the initial 823 entrants and Jean-Robert Bellande of Team Bodog Poker had the chip lead with 1,900,000 in chips to Graham’s 800,000. The heads up play started and both players were showing fatigued as day 2 has carried on for many hours. After a pot where Bellande showed a pair of fives with an ace kicker, which was good Graham was down to 400,000 chips. However, this did not phase him and started chipping away at Bellande with his short stack.

The turning point of the match came when the players saw a flop of 9d-5d-5s and Bellande check called Grahams bets on the flop, turn and river. Graham showed 8-6 and went running two pair and Bellande showed A-8. After this hand Graham had 1,850,000 in chips and Bellande held 850,000 in chips.

A few hands later Bellande was in serious trouble when the flop fell J-5-2 and Graham raised Bellande’s flop bet. The turn brought a 4 of diamonds and Bellande check raised and both players saw the river, which was a 7 of spades. Bellande bet again and Graham called and showed J-9 which was good and crippled Bellande stack.

Matt Graham finished off Bellande when he put his remaining stack in with 9c-7h and Graham called with Ad-Jd the board ran blanks and Jean-Robert Bellande finished in second place earning $173,564. Congratulations Matt Graham on your first World Series of Poker bracelet.