Brett Shaffer Wins WSOP Event #31, his Second Bracelet and $418,435

The World Series of Poker Event #31, $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em, has come to an end after 1,631 player battled it out at the tables. Brett Shaffer came out on top as the winner of the tournament, winning a massive first prize of $418,435 as well as the second WSOP bracelet in his poker career.

The tournament lasted for three long playing days and the large attendance created a big prize pool of $2,201,850 to be split amongst the players. The final day began with 15 players, but we were quickly down to the final nine, allowing the final table to begin.

Despite having some major names participating in the tournament, such as Antonio Esfandiari, Greg Raymer, Mike Leah, Liv Boeree and Vanessa Selbst, none of these players made it to the final table, not even to the final day. This meant that the players at the final table was perhaps not the most well known, but there was no doubt about their poker skills.

The final hand of the tournament came after 147 hands at the final table, where RJ Sullivan and Shaffer were battling it out. Blinds are 40,000/80,000 with a 10,000 ante and Sullivan raises to 180,000 from the button, only to see Shaffer push all-in from the big blind. After some thinking, Sullivan made the call.

Shaffer shows:

Sullivan shows:

Despite Sullivan having the best hand pre-flop, he wasn’t exactly thrilled to see the flop dealt by the dealer: , as Shaffer was now ahead, despite Sullivan having plenty of outs with a backdoor flush draw and a straight draw. Turn came  and river was a , so no help for Sullivan who sees Shaffer hit trips and take down his second WSOP title and $418,435.

Sullivan finished in second place for $258,695, a decent amount of money for three days of poker but he was of course very disappointed by not taking down the tournament. You can see the rest of the final table payouts below:

1. Brett Shaffer – $418,435
2. RJ Sullivan – $258,695
3. Matt Stout – $170,247
4. Peter Gould – $122,731
5. Aleksandr Gofman – $89,835
6. Robert Schmidt – $66,176
7. Rob Wazwaz – $50,246
8. Jim Jakobsen – $39,356
9. Jason Vanstrom – $29,658