Bulgaria's Simeon Naydenov Wins WSOP Event #36

Bulgaria’s Simeon Naydenov has won WSOP $1,500 NL Shootout (Event #36), after overcoming a field of 1,194 players over three days on his way to capturing a gold bracelet, and collecting the $326,440 first place prize.
With his latest victory at at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas the 25-year-old pro now takes his live tournament earnings to $806,499. Talking about the Shootout event in which he earned his first ever WSOP bracelet, Naydenov explained:
“Maybe back home they will start calling me Simeon the Shootout. Actually, I like the Shootout, the way they are formatted. But I play many events at the series. I think it just happened. Sit and Gos are not really my specialty. It’s a good tournament if you know how to switch gears. I also had to do better this time.”
The $1,500 NL Shootout event attracted a good field of pros and amateurs alike to create a prize pool worth $1,611,900. Amongst those notable names cashing in at the tournament was Bertrand Grospellier in 111th, Gavin Smith in 83rd, David Peters in 68th, Andreas Hoivold in 59th, Eric Baldwin in 27th, Amanda Musumeci in 22nd, and Erik Seidel in 14th ($5,556).
Simeon Naydenov then managed to make it all the way through to a tough 10 man seated final table, where he bested the likes of Canada’s Mike Watson, Argentina’s Jose “Nacho” Barbero and USA’s Jake Schwartz heads-up to claim the prestigious gold bracelet.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Simeon Naydenov (Bulgaria), $326,440
2. Jake Schwartz (US), $202,035
3. Andrew Kloc (US), $126,250
4. Tobias Wenker (Germany), $91,749
5. Jose “Nacho” Barbero (Argentina), $67,732
6. Mike Watson (Canada), $50,774
7. Jan Kropacek (Czech Republic), $38,621
8. Salman Behbehani (United Kingdom), $29,771
9. Noah Bronstein (US), $23,259
10. Sumanth Reddy (US), $18,407