Congratulations to Steven Kelly, Event #39 Champion ($381,922)
After battling their way through two ten-handed tables to get to today's final day of play, 14 players came with a theoretically equal shot of taking the bracelet. All started with the same stack size -- sort of like a 14-person sit-n-go -- and in the end it was Steven Kelly with all the chips. Kelly earns his second cash of the summer, and his first ever WSOP bracelet.
A total of 1,397 players entered this one, and after two days the final 14 included two-time bracelet winner J.C. Tran, another WSOP bracelet winner in Justin Scott, and 2007 WSOPE Main Event champion Annette Obrestad. Tran ran into some bad fortune early today and went out in 13th. Then Obrestad came up shy of the final table when both she and Michael Pesek were knocked out in a hand by Derric Haynie.
Scott would be the first to depart from the final table in 9th. As others hit the rail, Jeffrey King took the chip lead and maintained it for much of the evening. This was King's fifth WSOP final table and it looked as though this might be the one where he would break through.
Finally Dustin Dirksen -- once a WSOP runner-up -- went out in fourth, and Haynie in third, by which point King had relinquished the lead to Kelly. With a 3-to-1 lead in chips to start heads-up play, Kelly pushed his advantage from the start, and within about 15 hands it was over.
Congratulations to Steven Kelly, Event #39 champion! Come back to PokerNews tomorrow to see who wins the next bracelet as we continue our march toward the Main Event.