The American Mike Wattel become a second-time winner of a World Series of Poker gold bracelet after emerging victorious from this year’s Event #72. The player took down the 2017 WSOP $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship receiving the lion’s share of the tournament’s guaranteed prize pool.
The Chandler, Arizona-based player was granted with a monetary prize estimated to $245,451 after he managed to overcome the competition of the largely professional players field. What is more, Wattel also faced strong rivalry over the final table play, as seven of the eight players who were left there, including Wattel himself, have previously won WSOP bracelets.
The first-place prize received by the player did not turn out large enough to surpass his best live cash of $309,405, which he won in 2007 when ranking sixth in the First Annual Five Star World Poker Classic $25,50 WPT – NLHE Championship. Still, the massive payday helped Mike Wattel boost his total live winnings to $2,748,252. His lifetime WSOP earnings, on the other hand, amount to $2,247,383. Up to date, the US player has had over 45 WSOP cashes, and one WSOP gold bracelet won in the 1999 WSOP $1,500 Omaha Hi-Lo.
The final day of the tournament saw only seven players return to the final table, after David Benyamine was eliminated at the eighth position from the official final table at the end of Day 2.
The heads-up battle between the last two standing opponents lasted for approximately six hours and into an extra level of play before Wattel got crowned as the event’s winner. Later, when speaking of his victory, the player described it as better than his first WSOP gold bracelet winning, mostly because it had been a long time and he was not sure if there would be another bracelet winning for him.
Wattel also commented on his heads-up battle against Chris Ferguson, calling It an epic battle and praising his opponent for his qualities. As a matter of fact, the victory of Wattel happened to deny Ferguson what would be a sixth career WSOP gold bracelet for him. Still, Ferguson managed to generate another WSOP cash and took home the second-largest monetary prize offered by the competition.
A number of poker professionals finished in the money, despite they did not manage to get to the final table of the event. Some of them were Jason Mercier, Todd Brunson, Randy Ohel, Harry Thomas Jr., etc.
With Mike Wattel emerging victorious from the 2017 WSOP $10,000 Seven-Card Stud Championship, winning a first-place monetary prize estimated to $245,451, it was Chris Ferguson who ranked second. He was granted with a guaranteed prize pool portion amounting to $151,700. Perry Friedman remained third, scooping a prize of $104,416 for his efforts.
The fourth position in the ranking was occupied by Sean Amir Mirrasouli, who was followed by John Monnette on the fifth place. Bryce Yockey remained sixth, while the seventh and eighth positions were occupied by Shaun Deeb and David Benyamine, respectively.
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Harry Evans
