It was a battle of new school and old school in the heads-up finale of the $2,500 Seven Card Stud event, as Scott Seiver and four-time bracelet winner David Chiu battled for the biggest Stud title of the year.
While youth and inexperience have prevailed many times over this summer at the Rio, today the luck was on the side of age as Chiu won his fifth bracelet as well as $145,520. He is now the eleventh player in WSOP history to have five bracelets on his wrist. Seiver, who was seeking a second WSOP title, had to settle for second and an $89.980 payday.
One could suggest when you have won four other bracelets, the path to victory probably seems a little easier. However, chiu had a pretty tough path to the title in a tournament that was stacked with talent in this very specialized game.
To say this final table was stacked would be a serious understatement of talent. Between the eight of them, there were a combined 12 gold bracelets and tens of millions of dollars in earnings. The line-up included bracelet winner Adam Friedman (8th), bracelet winner Gary Benson (6th), 2010 WSOP Player of the Year and two-time bracelet winner Frank Kassela (6th), four-time bracelet winner David Chiu, and three-time bracelet winner Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi.
Matthew Ashton continued his red hot streak here at the 2013 WSOP by making his third final table appearance of the summer. His seventh place showing here ties him with David “Bakes” Baker for the most final table finishes so far this summer.
Mizrachi was looking to match Doyle Brunson and Bill Boyd in the history books as the only other player to win a bracelet every year for four consecutive years, but ended up taking fourth place. Freddie Ellis was hoping to win this event a second time, as he took the title in this tournament back in 2009. Instead, he finished in third place.
This event drew 246 entries and generated a prize pool of $559,650. The top 32 finishers each earned a payday of at least $3,889. Notables in the money include Daniel Negreanu, who extended his WSOP Player of the Year lead with a 26th place showing, Andre Akkari (17th), Hall of Famer Mike Sexton (13th), and Jesse Martin (10th).
Here are the final table results for the $2,500 Seven Card Stud event:
1st: David Chiu – $145,520
2nd: Scott Seiver – $89,980
3rd: Freddie Ellis – $59,127
4th: Michael Mizrachi – $43,188
5th: Frank Kassela – $31,978
6th: Gary Benson – $24,003
7th: Matthew Ashton – $18,266
8th: Adam Friedman – $14,086
