Steve Sung won his second gold bracelet during the early morning hours of Monday in the prestigious $25,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed event at the 44th Annual World Series of Poker. In addition to putting him in the elite company of multiple bracelet winners, the victory skyrocketed Sung’s career earnings at the WSOP to almost $2.7 million.
Sung’s two gold bracelet wins boast an interesting contrast in event types. In 2009, he bested an amateur-heavy 6,012 person field in a $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em event to win $771,338 and his first bracelet. Monday, though, he bested a much smaller field full of the game’s most elite talents in the 175-player, high buy-in six-handed event.
Either way, Sung has proven he is a force to be reckoned with year in and year out on the WSOP felt. At just 28 years old, he’s recorded 23 WSOP cashes including nine final table appearances and two gold bracelet victories. Additionally, his most recent victory came at the hands of one of the game’s best, Phil Galfond.
Galfond, matching Sung at 28 years old, has a resume just as stout and is recognized as one of the highest stakes cash game players in the world. He came up short of his second bracelet, but earned $744,841 for his second place finish.
The WSOP first held a $25,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event back in 2010. That event drew 191 players and resulted in then-rookie Dan Kelly winning his first bracelet. This year’s tournament drew a comparable field of 175 players with a prize pool of $4,156,210.
The big prize pool resulted in some big payouts for the top 18 finishers. Some of the notables who made the money, but missed out on the final table were Christian Harder (18th), Marvin Rettenmaier (16th), David “Bakes” Baker (15th), David Benyamine (14th), Jeff Gross (12th), Kevin Eyster (9th), and Shannon Shorr, who bubble the final table in seventh place.
The cash for Baker is his eighth of the year and puts him within one point of catching Daniel Negreanu in the WSOP Player of the Year race. Negreanu currently holds 475.84 points to Baker’s 475.35.
The final table featured a line-up of people who have all logged hours at WSOP final tables previously. Bracelet winners Sung and Galfond were joined by 2009 $40,000 No Limit Hold’em final tablist Dani Stern (3rd), Brit Stephen Chidwick (4th), Austrian Max Lehmanski (5th), and Richard Lyndaker (6th).
For Chidwick, it was his second final table appearance of the summer, making him the 30th player this summer to final table multiple events. He was hoping to make it back-to-back bracelets for the Brits after Barny Boatman’s win Saturday, but ended up finishing in fourth place.
The $1,205,324 first place payday makes the seventh seven-figure payout earned at this year’s WSOP. The most seven-figure paydays in a single year (excluding last year and the $1 million buy-in One Drop event) was 14 in 2006. There is a good chance this year’s WSOP will surpass that mark, making this the WSOP that produced the most millionaires in poker history.
Here are the final table results for the $25,000 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em Event:
1st: Steve Sung – $1,205,324
2nd: Phil Galfond – $744,841
3rd: Dani Stern – $509,473
4th: Stephen Chidwick – $353,780
5th: Max Lehmanski – $249,291
6th: Richard Lyndaker – $178,261
