2015 WSOP Event 18

Tuesday June 9,2015 : FIRST 2015 BRIT WINNER'S BRACELET AWARDED AT WORLD SERIES OF POKER.
 
John Gale beat open heart surgery and a brain tumour to play in this year's tournament.
 
After a three-year hiatus forced upon him by open heart surgery and a still-problematic brain tumour, Brit World Series of Poker veteran John Gale (61) returned triumphantly to the Las Vegas tournament this year by winning event 18 – the $1,500 buy-in NLHE Turbo competition – over a fast-paced two days of blistering action.
 
In doing so, Gale not only claimed his second WSOP bracelet (the first was back in 2006), but the $298,290 main prize.  It was his third final table at WSOP and his tenth cash at the festival, bringing his earnings in the tournament to almost a million dollars..
 
The event attracted an entry field of 1,791 players from 51 nations – up 30 percent on last year – and generated a prize pool of $1.61 million.
 
Gale began the final table third in chips and played a low profile game until midway through, when he changed up a gear and eliminated the last five survivors to end facing Gary Luther in the heads up.
 
With an 8 to 1 chip advantage there was no stopping the Brit, and Luther was quickly seen off for a second placing $184,481.
 
Other final table pay-outs were:
 
3 Matthew Vessier USA $127,549
4 Andrew Le Houston, USA $91,991
5 Stuart Rutter Birmingham, UK $67,248
6 Nitesh Rawtani USA $49,807
7 Mark Darner USA $37,379
8 Sean Rice USA $28,417
9 Tim Finne USA $21,873