Jacksonville online poker pro Jesse McEuen (34) has seen hard times over the past three years since Black Friday, arriving in Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker with his car, a dog and the bare minimum in cash.
With a little financial boost from his friend and fellow poker pro John Kabbaj, that all changed Wednesday when the poker pro romped home as the winner in event 47, claiming his first bracelet and a sorely needed $212,093 in the $1,500 buy-in Ante-Only NLHE competition after besting a field of 714.
That field included players of the calibre of Phil Hellmuth, Daniel Negreanu, Ryan D’Angelo, Antoine Saout, Maria Ho, Jason Somerville, Max Silver and Dan Kelly…all intent on getting a piece of the $963,900 prize pool.
Three days of seriously competitive poker later, the final table McEuen faced comprised Jonas Lauck, Rhys Jones, Simeon Naydenov, Adam Levy, Ryan D’Angelo, Herbert Yarborough, Jeremy Joseph and Arthur Pro.
Within the first four hands Joseph,Yarborough and D’Angelo were on their way to the exit, but the action settled down after that, and it was some time before Naydenov and Levy headed to the cashier to claim their fourth and fifth place prizes.
Third placed Rhys Jones was dismissed by McEuen, who entered the heads up with Jonas Lauck on even terms, neither player holding the advantage.
McEuen quickly set about changing that situation, methodically dismantling his opponent in a fine display of professional poker and sending him home with the runner up prize of $130,955.