New York poker pro Calvin Lee (28) made himself a cool $531,577 Friday when he claimed the main prize and his first gold winner’s bracelet at the World Series of Poker, besting a field of 1,029 in the $3,000 buy-in Six-Max No-Limit Hold’em event.
Due to rather cautious action in general and the large field, an extra day was required to decide a winner in the tournament, and even that went into extra time.
Lee proved to be a formidable player, not only surviving the large entry field but dominating much of the final table action. However going into the heads up he was at a 8.82 million vs. 6.62 million chip disadvantage against his last opponent, Costa Rica professional and single WSOP bracelet-holder Steven Thompson (36).
Lee didn’t allow that to disturb him at all, staging an impressive comeback with brilliant play that enabled him to re-take the lead and finally – after another 55 hands – despatch a truly tough and skilled Thompson, who really earned the runner-up prize of $328,487.
Other final table cashes included:
Mark Herm $224,805
Will Givens $156,281
Martin Kozlov $110,389
Alex Queen $79,246