Brent Hanks 
The first open event of the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) has ended with 29-year-old Brent Hanks winning the gold bracelet and USD $517,725 in prize money. A field of 2101 players sat down for the three-day USD $1500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament and the final table included three former WSOP gold bracelet winners in the form of Andrew Badecker (3rd), Vanessa Selbst (4th) and JP Kelly (8th).
Selbst became chip leader after eliminating Michael Kaufman in 7th place and for a while looked like she would become the first female poker player to win a WSOP open event since 2008. However, she then gave a large chunk of her chips to Hanks on a blind on blind battle with a straight against the rivered full house of Hanks. The hand proved to be the turning point for Hanks, accelerating his path to victory.
Hanks, a 5th grade school teacher turned professional poker player, has now won over USD $1,160,000 in his poker career since 2008, mostly in WSOP events. This was his 12th WSOP cash but his first taste of WSOP gold.
WSOP Event #2 final table payouts:
1. Brent Hanks – $517,725
2. Jacob Bazeley – $322,294
3. Andrew Badecker – $224,029
4. Vanessa Selbst – $161,345
5. Ryan Schmidt – $117,921
6. Abdyl Konjuhi – $87,231
7. Michael Kaufman – $65,377
8. JP Kelly – $49,621
9. Richard Park – $38,106
Phil Hellmuth also finished 61st in the event – the 86th WSOP cash of his career – which is the most, by far, of any player.
Read more at WSOP.com.
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