Ray Foley wins 2009 WSOP Event 392009 WSOP Event #39 $1,500 NLHE concluded with the usual mix of live high stakes pros, internet wiz-kids, and recreational players. When this event was complete, recreational player Ray Foley, a 37-year-old employee of Chrysler Financial, stood victorious to claiming his first World Series of Poker bracelet and $657,969 top place prize money. While Foley might be an amateur he has quite a WSOP track record having cashed in four of seven events he’s entered.

The road to victory is never easy in a World Series of Poker event, and with 2,715 entrants this event was going to take some luck to win. The runner-up finisher Brandon Cantu knows all about luck/variance today as he found himself on the wrong end of it heads-up and was denied his second bracelet as he finished runner up.

“I’m on the great side of variance, and the $657,969 in first-place prize money will be heading back to Northville, Mich. It’s still unbelievable at this point that I have a bracelet,” Foley said to the WSOP. “I can’t even describe it. And $660,000 — that’s a lot of money. It’s hard to believe there were 2,715 people in this tournament.”

Numerous times during heads-up play, Cantu had Foley on the ropes. All-in and behind for his tournament life, Foley hit the cards he needed to keep his dream alive. Foley will never forget two hands during heads-up play: The first was a split pot in which he was holding A-7 versus Cantu’s A-Q (8-8-5-6-5) and the second was when he hit a two-outer on the turn with 10-10 versus Cantu’s K-7 (after Cantu hit a king on the flop). It just wasn’t meant to be Cantu’s night.
Foley headed to the WSOP to play in one event, but after a quick elimination in the fifth level of Event 36, he decided to buy into this event. He had a flight out Sunday night that he happily missed, and with a newly augmented bankroll, the recreational player’s decision to play full-time has gotten a little more serious.

Other notable finishers included Alex Jacob (fourth), Joe Bartholdi (20th) and Nam Le (23rd).

2009 WSOP Event 39 Final Table Results

1. Ray Foley ($657,969)
2. Brandon Cantu ($403,951)
3. Wei Mu ($269,609)
4. Alex Jacob ($190,857)
5. Tyler Spalding ($143,421)
6. Jonathan Markham ($114,514)
7. Chairud Vangchailued ($96,355)
8. Richard Lutes ($85,608)
9. Patrick O’Connor ($80,049)