USA's Jim Collopy Wins 2013 WSOP APAC PLO Event

Jim Collopy has won WSOP Asia Pacific $1,650 PLO event, after defeating a field of 172 players on his way to capturing a gold bracelet, as well as the A$69,662 first place prize.
The 24 year old US pro has enjoyed some impressive results since cashing in at his first live tournament in 2008 and in 2010 narrowly missed out on a bracelet after finishing runner-up to Gus Hansen at WSOPE £10k NL High Roller Heads-Up for £178,211 ($274,924).
This time around, however, he was not to be denied and after taking down the PLO event, Jim Collopy has now taken his live tournament cashes to more than $700k, to go with the $2,193,404 he has won online playing under the screen name Mr_BigQueso.
Commenting on his remarkable victory in Melbourne, Collopy said: “Australia is definitely the country where I’ve run best in the world. Skipping the snow and having a three-year endless summer of not ever having to put on socks and shoes is awesome.”
Although the 172 player field was smaller than most standard bracelet events, WSOP APAC Event 2 did still attract the attention of many notable players. Amongst the top names managing to cash in the event was Jos Hachem in 17th ($3,460), Jeff  Lisandro in 14th ($4,138), and Andrew Gaw in 12th ($5,028).
Jim Collopy then entered the final table of nine as the chip leader and apparently never relinquished the lead despite a line-up of tough pros, including the likes of  Marvin Rettenmaier and Dan Shak. Marvin Rettenmaier subsequently became the first finalist to exit in 9th ($6,207), while Dan Shak managed a 5th place finish for $16,940. Eventually, Jim Collopy went on to defeat  Australia’s Edison Nguyen heads-up to claim USA’s second WSOP APAC bracelets from two events.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Jim Collopy (AU$69,662)
2. Ming Nguyen ($43,050)
3. Tino Lechich ($30,988)
4. Scott Reid ($22,712)
5. Dan Shak ($16,940)
6. Paul Sharbanee ($12,856)
7. Mike Leah ($9,923)
8. Martin Kozlov ($7,784)
9. Marvin Rettenmaier ($6,207)