You could say that the 77-strong entry list for World Series of Poker event 29 was hellishly well populated with some of the most dangerous professional players in the game like Nick Schulman, George Danzer, Brian Hastings, Jason Mercier, Antonio Esfandiari, John Monnette, Dan Smith, Erik Seidel, Jon Turner, Eli Elezra, Paul Volpe…and the eventual winner, online and live tournament ace Paul Galfond (30).
On the final table of the $10,000 buy-in NL 2-7 Draw Lowball competition alone there were a slew of tough winner bracelet holders, all intent on grabbing the biggest share of the $723,800 prize pool.
At that point Galfond was one of the lower stacks around the table, but showed talent in surmounting that obstacle – and the fact that this is not his strongest game – to enter the heads up against Nick Schulman, albeit at a 3 to 1 chip disadvantage.
Schulman was a serious challenge even without the big chip lead; he’s an expert in the genre and a twice-crowned champion in this event in 2009 and 2012, but Galfond staged a remarkable come-back to eventually reverse the chip advantage completely and eliminate Schulman.
Galfond’s reward was the $224,383 first prize and his second WSOP winner’s bracelet after a seven year gap – his first was in a PLO tourney back in 2008.
Other final table pay-days were:
2 Nick Schulman $138,665
3 Dan Smith $87,898
4 Erik Seidel $59,532
5 Jon Turner $42,298
6 Eli Elezra $31,463