Brian Yoon Wins Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold'em for $633,341
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Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold'em at the 2014 World Series of Poker, which attracted 550 players and created a prize pool of $2.585 million, was originally scheduled to be a four-day event; however, things moved a little faster than expected on Day 3 and a winner was crowned. That man was Brian Yoon, who captured a $633,341 first-place prize and his second WSOP gold bracelet.
Yoon may be familiar to poker fans as the man who topped a massive field of 4,756 players in last year’s $1,111 buy-in Little One for One Drop event for a first-place prize of $663,727. With this win, Yoon, who is two for two in WSOP final-table wins, brings his lifetime WSOP winnings up over $1.4 million.
Day 3 began with 23 players, and it didn’t take long for some to hit the rail. Among the early eliminations were Olivier Busquet (23rd - $18,095), Eric Froehlich (22nd - $18,095), Ravi Raghavan (21st - $18,095), and Jeff Madsen (20th - $18,095). Madsen began the day as chip leader, but he lost a good portion of his stack straight out of the gate. Then, in Level 21 (5,000/10,000/1,000), he three-bet all in for 147,000 from the big blind after Yoon had opened for 20,000 from the small blind. Yoon called and was in a dominating spot with the 
to Madsen's 
. The board ran out a clean 
, and the 2006 WSOP Player of the Year made an unexpected early exit.
From there, 11 players followed him out the door before the final table was set. Among them were Matt Davenport (18th - $18,095), Sylvain Loosli (16th - $21,946), Sam Stein (14th - $27,013), David Peters (12th - $33,734), and Sam Trickett (11th - $33,734).
Tony Cousineau was the first final-table casualty after his pocket nines failed to hold against Yoon’s king-queen on Hand #43. With that, Cousineau added to his record streak of 63 WSOP cashes without winning a gold bracelet.
On Hand #49 of the final table, Timo Pfutzenreuter exited in seventh place when his pocket sevens fell to the 
of Mustapha Kanit after an ace appeared on the flop. Another ace on the turn left Pfutzenreuter drawing dead, and he took home $71,940 for his seventh-place finish.
Nine hands later Kanit would eliminate Dan Smith when his own pocket sevens held against Smith’s 
, but seven hands later Kanit would be on the rail after a failed bluff against Yoon.
Four-handed play last quite awhile, but eventually the blinds got big and Josh Arieh was able to eliminate two players in five hands. The first was Ardit Kurshumi, who failed to win a race for his tournament life, and the other was Josh Bergman, who failed to overcome Arieh’s 
with the 
. Kurshumi and Bergman were felled in fourth and third place for $176,684 and $246,169, respectively.
Heads-up play between Yoon and Arieh began with the two near even in chips, and they were pretty deep. It could have been an extended affair, but instead it lasted just 19 hands. During that time, Yoon gained momentum, opened up a chip lead, and finished off his opponent after flopping a flush.
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | Brian Yoon | $633,341 |
| 2nd | Josh Arieh | $391,575 |
| 3rd | Josh Bergman | $246,169 |
| 4th | Ardit Kurshumi | $176,684 |
| 5th | Mustapha Kanit | $128,862 |
| 6th | Dan Smith | $95,515 |
| 7th | Timo Pfutzenreuter | $71,940 |
| 8th | Tony Cousineau | $55,034 |
Congratulations to Brian Yoon, winner of Event #35: $5,000 Eight-Handed No-Limit Hold'em!