Pierre Shum earned his first WSOP bracelet and another $600,000 in winnings
Pierre Shum won his first career tournament and picked up his first World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet on July 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada, by winning The Closer $1,500 No-Limit Hold ’em event at the WSOP, bagging the top prize of $606,810. Shum is a software engineer from Chicago and now has a bigger bankroll to enter more tournaments in the future.
The two-day tournament had two flights with 3,531 participants, putting the total prize pool at $4,713,885. The final table included bracelet winner Lisa Hamilton (10th), top pro poker player Chris Moorman (15th), and five-time WSOP Gold Ring winner Preston McEwen (11th).
The last 258 players returned at midday to decide a winner, with the final table set just after 8:30 pm. Shum took control of the chip lead at this point and carved his way to victory. He scored his first knockout at the final table when he defeated tournament pro Peter Hengsakul, who finished eighth.
Peter Nigh took the chip lead after the table was reduced to five, then Shum came back to eliminate Amirpash Emami in fifth place. Bracelet winner Jack Duong dropped to fourth place, with Nigh taking the lead before heads-up lead by eliminating Roongsak Griffeth in third place.
Shum had a lot to overcome, with Nigh holding over two-thirds of the chips in play, but he quickly found quad fours to regain the lead. From there, it was only about half an hour until they played the final hand around midnight. With AS, 8D up his sleeve, Nigh went all in before the flop, and Shum called with QC, 2C. The board showed QS, QD, 7H, JD, 5D, and Nigh took second place for $376,420. It was the biggest win of Nigh’s career, taking his tournament earnings to $1.22 million.
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