A young and relatively inexperienced (in poker) finance professor from the University of Arizona, Dr. Mitchell Towner is $1.12 million wealthier after besting a mammoth field of 6,927 to win his first World Series of Poker bracelet and the main prize in the $1,500 buy-in Monster Stack NLHE event.
The massive field, which included many top international players, generated a prize pool of $ 9,351,450, enabling 1,040 finishers to cash.
On the fourth and final day of the epic competition the final table of nine was reached around the dinner break when Matt Affleck headed to the exit at tenth, leaving David Valcourt as the table chip leader and Towner among the low stacks.
With the survivors playing cautiously, it looked as if a typically WSOP marathon night was in prospect, but at hand 94 the action ignited with the elimination of Andrew Morena at sixth followed quickly by David Pham at fifth in hand 98 and Daniel DiPasquale at fourth at hand 100. Suddenly the action was three-handed and aggressive, featuring Towner, Dorian Rios and Stephen Nussrallah.
The momentum remained, with Nussrallah busting at hand 106 in third for $ 513,902, leaving Towner and Rios to decide the winner, with the professor holding a 6 to 5 chip advantage.
Again, it appeared that the evenly matched duo were in for a long night, but in fact it was all over by hand 123 just a half-hour later as Towner maintained the lead and leveraged it into a convincing win, sending a very tough opponent to the exit to collect the $ 692,029 runner-up reward.
The other final table survivors were also well rewarded:
Daniel DiPasquale: $ 384,338.
David Pham: $ 289,497.
Andrew Moreno: $ 219,632.
David Valcourt: $ 167,838.
Marshall White: $ 129,197.
Cody Pack: $ 100,185.