High profile live and online poker pro Ryan D’Angelo (30) is celebrating his first World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet after besting an entry field of 279 in the $1500 buy-in 2-7 No Limit Draw Lowball event to claim the main prize of $92,338.
Entering the last day of play with the chip lead D’Angelo was able to largely retain the advantage through to the final table.
Among his opponents on the final table were two WSOP bracelet holders in John Monnette and Dan Kelly, but that did not faze D’Angelo one bit as he maintained a cool and disciplined strategy that enabled him – along with some good cards – finally to secure the victory.
In post-game interviews D’Angelo described the competition as one in which he was never at risk (although Monette’s reputation made him nervous) despite his relative inexperience in the variant.
Ultimately D’Angelo – holding a massive 6 to 1 chip lead – faced John Monnette in the heads up, and he wasted little time in leveraging his huge chip advantage to despatch Monette with the runner up prize of $57,061.
D’Angelo will not be taking all his winnings home – he has pledged a percentage to Food Gardens Foundation, a charity which provides seeds to the needy in South Africa to assist in food production.
Other final table pay-outs included:
Tom Franklin $38,582
Daniel Kelly $26,632
Konstantin Maslak $18,775
Todd Barlow $13,524
Alex Dovzhenko $9,959