By RP, May 29, 2015
Pechanga Casino poker supervisor Brandon Barnette (29) has won the first event in this year’s World Series of Poker, the $565 buy-in Casino Employees NLHE competition, after besting a field of 687 other hopefuls who generated a prize pool of $344,000.
His reward is a prize of $75,704 and a prestigious WSOP gold winner’s bracelet.
The entry field was considerably smaller than the same event last year, when there were 876 registrations.
It was a nostalgic return to Las Vegas for Barnette, who was at one stage in his career a WSOP dealer.
In the heads up Thursday night local time Barnette tangled with another experienced dealer, Greg Seiden, soon finding his 3 to 1 chip advantage whittled down by a tough and skillful opponent. But Barnette fought back with disciplined play and well timed aggression to regain the lead and ultimately send Seiden to the exit and a runner up prize of $46,735.
Other final table pay-outs were:
Zachary Seufert $30,382
Gary Kochalka $22,315
Michael Kahn $16,622
Aiping Xue $12,542
Thomas McFadden $9,573
Phi Tran $7,389
Chris Jones $5,762