WSOP 2010 Event 17 - Jason DeWitt Wins $5,000 NL Holdem Event

Event #17 at the 2010 WSOP, $5,000 NL Holdem, kicked off with 792 players looking to play a little "deep stack" poker.  In addition, they were looking to take home the bracelet and $818,959 in prize money.

Day 1 started with a monster field.  Just to give you an idea of how tough it was, Shannon Elizabeth registered late and wound up at a table including Chris Ferguson, Phil Hellmuth, David Williams, Dan Heimiller, Alex Bolotin, and Matt Brady.  Annette Obrestad made the money in this event, here first ever WSOP cash.  Phil Hellmuth made another deep run in this event, but ultimately finished in 50th.

Day 3 saw both Antonio Esfandiari and Perry Friedman among those looking to make the final table, but Esfandiari fell short in 12th and Friedman was the final table bubble boy, finishing in 12th.  David Benefield and Jason DeWitt were among those that did make the final table.  Peter Gilmore led the field heading into the final table.  Here are the final nine players and their starting chip counts:

David Benefield finished in 6th place and Jason DeWitt made it heads-up with Samuel Trickett for the bracelet.  At the start of heads-up play, DeWitt held 6.89 Million in chips to the 4.99 in chips of Trickett.  With blinds of 50,000 and 100,000 and only a 10,000 chip ante, both players had a lot of play left in their stacks.

The battle between DeWitt and Trickett lasted for a while, but Trickett was never able to make any headway on DeWitt.  DeWitt played very cautiously and actually got a bit lucky in the final hand.  In the final hand, DeWitt shoved with 10-8 and Tricket woke up with A-7 and made the call.  Trickett was in good shape to double up until an eight hit the flop.  While Trickett also picked up a straight draw with the flop, the straight never completed, and as such, Jason DeWitt is the Event #17 Champion.

Jason DeWitt takes home both the golden bracelet that defines the World Series of Poker winners, plus  $818,959.  Congratulations.

Below are the final table payouts: