Former Golf Caddie Wins Bracelet At WSOP $1,500 Limit Hold'em Event

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Brent Wheeler has won WSOP $1,500 limit hold ’em (Event 10), after besting a field of 645 players over three days on his way to capturing his first gold bracelet, and scooping the $191,605 first place prize.

Back in 2006, gold caddie Brent Wheeler decided to pursue a career as a professional poker player, buoyed by his encouraging results in both the live and online arena. Since changing career paths, Wheeler now has a prestigious WSOP bracelet to his name to go with the $788,416 he has won from live tournaments, and $305,099 earned online.

Commenting on his remarkable victory at the Rio in Las Vegas, Brent Wheeler explained: “It’s a little surreal. It will kick in tomorrow, probably. It’s nice. This is what you play for. You go for the bracelet and then to have my friends here and my family back at home watching – it’s awesome.”

The $1,500 buy-in limit hold ’em event attracted a whole slew of pros to create a prize pool worth $870,750. Amongst the notable names cashing in at the tournament was Matt Hawrilenko in 66th ($2,455), Nick Schulman in 58th ($2,873), Kevin MacPhee in 41st ($4,048), Hoyt Corkins in 37th ($4,048), and Jeff Shulman in 19th ($5,938).

By the time the final table of nine had been reached, Brent Wheeler was 4th in chips, behind chip leader Mark Mierkalns, Grayson Scoggin and a two-times WSOP champion Eric Froehlich. Unfortunately for Froehlich he was the first player to exit in 9th ($14,585), after which Wheeler (K-Q) managed to outdraw Alexander Queen (A-K) on a K-10-6 flop when a Q arrived on the river to dispatch Queen to the rail in 8th for $18,703.

Brent Wheeler (Q-J) then proceeded to eliminate Malissia Zapata (Q-4) on a Q-8-4-J-5 board in 3rd ($76,904) to go heads-up against Mark Mierkalns. However, there was to be no quick resolution to the battle and it wouldn’t be until the third hour of heads-up that Wheeler (A-3) managed to outdraw Mierkalns (A-10) to claim the gold bracelet.

Commenting after his impressive victory, Brent Wheeler said: “Once we got heads-up, (Mierkalns) was the player I would have picked not to play heads-up against. e’s a very solid player. When we got heads-up I knew it was going to be a long battle. He had a good feel for what I was doing, and I knew what he was doing. The blinds got up there and cards went my way and I got the victory.”

The final table payouts were a follows:

1. Brent Wheeler ($191,605)

2. Mark Mierkalns ($118,300)

3. Malissia Zapata ($76,904)

4. Chiduziem Obi ($56,485)

5. Grayson Scoggin ($42,074)

6. William James ($31,747)

7. Brian Nichols ($24,232)

8. Alexander Queen ($18,703)

9. Eric Froehlich ($14,585)