Tony Veckey 2009 WSOPTony Veckey is a 30-year-old software engineer from Lake in the Hill, IL, who has worked for Motorala since graduating college. A few days ago he made his very first trip to the Rio in Las Vegas entering his first World Series of Poker Event. This decision paid off as last night he took home $673,276 top place prize money as well as a coveted WSOP bracelet by winning the final $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event of the 2009 WSOP.

Event 53 sold out well before the start time and on June 29th, 2,818 entrants made there way to the felt with hopes of a WSOP bracelet. Only 384 players survived day one with Jonathan Little, Alexander Kostritsyn, Liv Boeree and J.C. Tran being among the day one casualties. On day several more big names fell including Carlos Mortensen, Amit Makhija, Hevad Khan and Theo Tran.

The final day saw 28 players return, including Vivek Rajkumar and Brandon Wong. By the time the final table was set, Veckey was in fifth chip position with 1.1 million in chips. He remained in the middle of the pack until there were four players left. He then knocked out two players, but still trailed Jason Wheeler by almost a 2-1 chip margin when heads-up play began.

Veckey never waivered and even folded pocket kings preflop during heads-up play, confindent his hand was no good. Veckey then managed to take the chip lead and on the final hand, Wheeler was all in with top pair, but Veckey had a made straight and it held up, allowing him to take home the bracelet, along with $673,276.

Here are the official final table results:

1. Tony Veckey — $673,276
2. Jason Wheeler — $418,122
3. Joseph Chaplin — $ 276,029
4. Sergey Konkin — $195,213
5. Andrew Malott — $147,131
6. Christopher Bonita — $117,358
7. Christopher DeMaci — $98,933
8. David Jaoui — $87,855
9. Miha Remic — $81,970