German poker pro Arne Kern has emerged as the winner of the World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em Millionaire Maker event, earning a cool $1,173,223 and a WSOP bracelet after besting a large field of 7,361 that included many top players.
The field generated a prize pool worth $9,937,350, and Kern’s lion’s share of it was by far his biggest pay day to date, totally overshadowing his previous top tourney reward of $28,000.
The twenty-eight year old poker pro started Day 4 play way down in the low chip counts but managed to double up early on which gave him momentum, on which he built with skill and patience, zooming up the chip counts with a telling win over two-bracelet holder Barney Boatman and eliminating him in seventh before going on to survive the rest of a tough 250-hand final table and make it to the heads up stage.
There he faced UK ace Sam Razavi in what turned out to be a thrilling two-hour, 62-hand battle in which the lead repeatedly changed hands before Kern was finally able to put a very strong opponent away. Razavi’s strong showing earned him a runner up prize of $724,756.
Other final table pay days included:
Joe McKeehen $538,276
Michael Souza $402,614
Justin Liberto $303,294
Manuel Ruivo $230,120
Barny Boatman $175,865
Ralph Massey $135,383
Sean Marshall $104,987