Poker: Wsop Event 39

Ray Foley (37) of Northville, Michigan, is the victor in Event #39 - the $1 500 buy-in No Limit Hold'em competition at the 2009 World Series of Poker. The event drew an entry field of 2 715 and delivered a prize pool of $3 705 975, with 26 players surviving through to the final day, where it took five hours to reach the following final table:

Seat 1: Chairud Vangchailued - 875 000
Seat 2: Tyler Spalding - 1 485 000
Seat 3: Patrick O'Connor - 580 000
Seat 4: Brandon Cantu - 880 000
Seat 5: Alex Jacob - 2 200 000
Seat 6: Ray Foley - 2 860 000 - chip leader and eventual winner
Seat 7: Richard Lutes - 1 555 000
Seat 8: Wei Mu - 1 370 000
Seat 9: Jonathan Markham - 400 000

Foley, who has played in four major live tournaments including this one to accrue career winnings of $733 031, managed to maintain his lead through much of the tournamet and into the final table action.

The Foley vs. Brandon Cantu heads up was decided when Wei Mu was eliminated in third place for a $269 609 payday. By that time Cantu had opened up a chip lead of around 1.8 million on his opponent, and half-an-hour into the game it looked as if Cantu was headed for his second WSOP bracelet.

It was not to be however, with Foley enjoying a marvellous run of cards to put the final shine on his talented play, sending Cantu to the cashier with a second placing reward of $403 951, and collecting the main prize of $657 969 and his first WSOP bracelet.

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