2012 WSOP Event 12

Friday June 8, 2012 : BRIAN HASTINGS CLAIMS HIS FIRST WORLD SERIES OF POKER BRACELET (Update)
 
Respected young professional takes the honours in NLHE championship
 
Brian Hastings (23), a respected online high stakes player famed for his multi-million dollar encounters on the virtual felt against Viktor Blom, has his first World Series of Poker bracelet.
 
The young poker pro from Pennsylvania, who moved to Vancouver in Canada after Black Friday impacted his online poker career last year, and plans to settle in Florida, took down event 12 – the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Heads-Up championship this week, winning the main prize of $371,498.
 
A prize pool of  $1,428,800 was generated by the 152 entrants for the event, which took three days to play down to a final list comprising Hastings and Jason Mo, Brock Parker, Tommy Chen, Chris Moore, Jeffrey Gross, Andrew Robl, Michael Drummond and Vanessa Selbst.
 
Speculation that the event would pit Blom against Hastings in an epic grudge match failed to materialise when Blom crashed out on the first day of the event without even making the money bubble.
 
Facing Hastings in the final heads up was Jason Mo, a poker pro from Missouri, with Hastings holding a significant chip lead. However, Mo staged a comeback through a series of double ups that first placed the two players on an even footing, and then enabled Mo to get ahead by a million.
 
Mo's good cards ran out when he was crippled in a massive pre-flop passage of play, and he was unable to recover despite several brave attempts as the game approached its conclusion and Hastings put the last nail in the coffin.
 
Mo's runner up prize was $229,722.