Carter Phillips Wins Second WSOP Bracelet In Event #31
Phillips is one the nice guys in poker, ask anyone who has played alongside him in major tournaments across the globe and quiz the poker staff and bloggers at these events about Phillips and not one will have a bad word about him
Three days ago 2,811 players exchanged $1,500 for 4,500 chips and the chance to become a World Series of Poker champion. For 2,810 of them the dream came to a disappointing end but for one man, Carter Phillips, the dream came true as he won his second WSOP bracelet by winning the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event.
Phillips is one the nice guys in poker, ask anyone who has played alongside him in major tournaments across the globe and quiz the poker staff and bloggers at these events about Phillips and not one will have a bad word about him; it seems good guys do finish first sometimes. Phillips failed to make it to the money in any WSOP event during 2011 but the year prior to that he took down the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em Six-Max event for a cool $482,774 and a WSOP bracelet. Now he had two pieces of poker jewellery thanks to this latest victory.
The man from Charlotte, who also has a European Poker Tour title to his name, started the nine-handed final table sixth in chips but along with former WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Cada, he was still one of the favourites to win. One by one the players fell by the wayside, including Britain's Najib Kamand in fifth place, and when Tom Chambers was busted out it left the two pre-match favourites in Cada and Phillips to battle it out for the bracelet and the $664,130 first place prize.
Cada started with a two-to-one chip advantage over Phillips but the latter is certainly not a man who gives up easily. He first clawed his way back into contention, then took the lead only for Cada to stage a comeback of his own. The talented pair swapped positions for over two hours before a hand occurred that ended the tournament as a contest.
On board reading 5d-2s-10h-9s Phillips got his chips into the middle and Cada made the call with Jc-10c but was drawing dead to the 9d-9c of Phillips that had turned a set. Cada did manage to find a double up but he was still very short stacked and needing some serious help to get himself back into the match. That help failed to materialise as his 9h-7d could not out run the Qc-Jd of Phillips and with that Phillips was announced as a WSOP champion for the second time in his career.
Event #31 Final Table Payouts
1st: Carter Phillips - $664,130
2nd: Joe Cada - $412,424
3rd: Tom Chambers - $290,875
4th: Cherish Andrews - $210,083
5th: Najib Kamand - $153,578
6th: Maximilian Lehmanski - $113,618
7th: Michael Aron - $85,043
8th: Jonathan Poche - $64,399
9th: Huy Quach - $49,333
Prices quoted in copy are correct at time of publication but liable to change.
