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Events 19 and 20 of the 39th World Series of Poker have been decided, with convincing wins and the coveted bracelets going to Vanessa Selbst and Daniel Negreanu respectively.
For Negreanu aka Kid Poker winning the $2 000 Limit Hold'em event gave him his fourth career WSOP bracelet and the first-place prize money of $204 874. He dominated the heads up action against second placed finisher Ugur Marangoz, the poker room manager at the Mirage in Las Vegas, who took home $126 671.
Six of the final table players were first-timers, and Negreanu was able to make up a deficit in chips as the game progressed.
Negreanu's bank balance will get a further boost, however, thanks to a side bet he had with Phil Ivey which involves either one of them paying the other $200 000 for each bracelet won this year.
In Event 19, the $1 500 Pot-Limit Omaha, Vanessa Selbst not only survived a starting field of 758 players, but dominated the tournament from start to finish to achieve her first WSOP bracelet. By day two the field was down to 46 players and Selbst still led the pack, although when play had reached the three handed stage the chip counts of surviving opponents Stanley Statkiewicz and Jamie Pickering were pretty much even with Selbst's.
Selbst then eliminated Stakiewicz to set up the heads up, holding an almost 4 to 1 chip advantage over Australian player Jamie Pickering, then finished the boisterous Aussie off in around an hour and a half. It was an impressive display against a very entertaining and skilled opponent - Pickering is both a pro and the owner of a nightclub who has three WSOP and four Aussie Millions cashes to his credit.
Selbst's first bracelet comes with the main prize for the event of $227 933, whilst the Aussie collected a well earned second place check for $145 459.
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