WSOP 2010 Event 52 - Dan Kelly Wins $25,000 NL Holdem Event

Event #52 at the 2010 World Series of Poker was the $25,000 Six-Handed NL Holdem Event. 191 of the world's finest turned out to take a shot at the largest buy-in event outside of the $50,000 Poker Player's Championship.

Daniel Negreanu was at the top of the leaderboard for most of the event and many were interested to see if he could make the final table. Negreanu would fall one table shy of the final, finishing in 11th place.

The final table of this event was headlined by Frank Kassela. Kassela had already won two bracelets going into the final table and was also leading in the WSOP Player of the Year race. This final table all but locks up the POY title.

Dan Kelly took a more than 2 to 1 chip lead into this final table. Mikael Thuritz also made the final table of this event, giving him final tables at both high buy-in events at this year's WSOP. Here are how the final six started final table play:

Seat 1:  Frank Kassela             2,610,000

Seat 2:  Jason Somerville        1,665,000

Seat 3:  Dan Kelly                   5,895,000

Seat 4:  Eugene Katchalov      475,000

Seat 5:  Shawn Buchanan       2,110,000

Seat 6:  Mikael Thuritz            1,535,000

Kassela would finish in 3rd at this final table, giving him a 60 point lead heading into the Main Event.  John Juanda has make it at least heads-up in the Main Event to win Player of the Year. Dan Heimiller, Michael Mizrachi and Vladimir Shchemelev must win the Main Event in order to win Player of the Year.

Heads-up play in this event was between Dan Kelly and Shawn Buchanan. Buchanan led 7.87 Million to 6.46 Million at the start of heads-up play. Kelly would take over the chip lead by nearly 3 Million when the last hand went down.

The final hand saw Buchanan shove pre-flop with pocket jacks and Kelly make the call with Ac-10d.  The flop fell and turn fell 6-4-3-5 and Buchanan still led. However, the river spiked the Ad to leave Buchanan's supporters stunned and Kelly the champion.

Dan Kelly is the $25,000 Six-Handed NL Holdem Champion. He took him the bracelet and $1,315,518.

The final table payouts are below: