It was a string of celebrations this week at the World Series of Poker(WSOP) 2014 as Justin Bonomo, Gregory Kolo and Paul Volpe became first time winners of the coveted Gold Bracelets. While Bonomo playing his second final table in as many weeks won the $1,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event to take $449,980 payday, Kolo took down the Event 12-$1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em for $169,225. American domination at the 2014 WSOP continued with Event 13 as Paul Volpe won the most expensive jewel of poker by defeating Daniel Negreanu in the $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single-Draw championship event 13.
Justin Bonomo finished runners up to Tuan Le in the Event 5, $10K Limit 2-7Triple Draw Lowball Poker last week and tweeted
Always a bride's maid, never a bride.
— Justin Bonomo (@JustinBonomo) June 1, 2014
“Always a bride’s maid, never a bride.” This tweet drew huge response from the poker community on poker and fans at large. And finally when Bonomo sat at his second final table this WSOP, he was flooded with tweets and messages. Twitter erupted with messages for him ‘finally becoming the bride’, ‘getting married to the ultimate’ etc when he defeated Mike Sowers in a long heads up battle in Event 11, $1,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em. Bonomo’s remarkable run this WSOP has also elevated him to the front position of the WSOP Player of the Year(POY) Leaderboard. This tournament drew 1,587 players resulting in a prize pool of $2,142,150. The top 162 players finished in the money, including Jeff Madsen (117th), David Bakes Baker (100th), Jason Mercier (86th), Erik Cajelais (41st), Russell Thomas (29th), and Corey Burbick (13th).
Here are the final table results from the $1,500 Six-Handed No Limit Hold’em event:
1st: Justin Bonomo – $449,980
2nd: Mike Sowers- $278,518
3rd: Daniel Strelitz – $180,587
4th: Lance Harris – $119,977
5th: Niel Mittelman – $80,341
6th: Taylor Paur – $55,703
While Bonomo hogged all the limelight, Gregory Kolo silently picked up his first WSOP Bracelet in the Event #12: $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold’em banking $169,225 in prize money. Kolo started the 8 handed FT of this Event in chip lead and a solid show ensured he took the bracelet home. Kazu Oshima was the man he defeated in heads up action who pocketed $104,000 for his runners up finish.
Also making headlines was Paul Volpe when he defeated 2013 WSOP POY Daniel Negreanu in the $10,000 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Single-Draw championship for the former’s first WSOP Bracelet. Volpe earned $253,524 by defeating a stacked final table comprising of notable poker pros like Jason Mercier (3rd), Brian Rast (4th), Larry Wright (5th), John Monnette (6th) and Abe Mosseri (8th). In the end, Volpe reigned denying Negreanu his 7th WSOP Bracelet, Canada its first 2014 bracelet and he also saved several members of the high-stakes poker community a chunk of money as a number of them had bracelet bets centered on whether or not Negreanu or Phil Ivey will win a bracelet this year.
Here are the final table results from the $10,000 No Limit 2-7 Event:
1st: Paul Volpe – $253,524
2nd: Daniel Negreanu – $156,674
3rd: Jason Mercier- $99,313
4th: Brian Rast – $67,264
5th: Larry Wright – $47,792
6th: John Monnette – $35,549
7th: Abe Mosseri – $27,633