Bryan Hollis has taken down the first event of the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP), the $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em event, for his first ever career World Series of Poker cash in which he topped a field of 651 to win $68,817 and the first bracelet of the tournament.
“This is my first tournament since playing this event last year,” Hollis said. “This is my first cash. I’ve played the Millionaire Maker once and this is the third year in a row I’ve played the employee event. I’ve actually never made it past the first break, except in the Millionaire Maker.”
Hollis went into heads up play with Chris Solomon feeling confident having spent enough time with his opponent on Day 1 to feel he had a good read on Solomon’s play.
“Once we got to heads-up, I was feeling really confident,” Hollis said. “I had played with him yesterday and I knew how aggressive he was. I knew if I could flop top pair, I knew if I could get him to jam on me, I’d get all the money in. I had the best hand when we got it in and it held up. Now we are talking about it.”
Final Table Results:
1. Bryan Hollis – $68,817
2. Chris Solomon – $42,508
3. Josh Clanton – $29,372
4. Jermel Stephens – $20,629
5. Alex Cordova – $14,731
6. Adem Arbuckle – $10,698
7. Chris Gallagher – $7,903
8. Vincent Russell – $5,941
9. Victor Kim – $4,547