Canadian Kirk Caldwell Wins WSOP $1.5k NL Event

Canada has just earned its fourth bracelet at WSOP 2011, after Kirk Caldwell won Event #32: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event after overcoming a 2,828 strong field on his way to collecting the $668,276 first place prize.
Apparently the 31 year old from Ontario had never cashed at a live tournament prior to yesterday, making his victory at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino all the more remarkable.
However, Kirk Caldwell won’t be the only person celebrating his big win as the salesman secured his tournament buy-in via a satellite organised with his friends. It was also agreed that the winner would then share out 15% of potential earnings, which now translates to a whopping $100,241 wind fall for the group.
The $1,500 NL Event attracted a whole slew of top pros to the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. Amongst those falling short of their WSOP aspirations were Allen Cunningham, Joe Cada, Phil Laak, Randy Lew, Jerry Yang, Tom Dwan, TJ Cloutier and Chino Rheem. 
By Day 3 of the competition, though, just 35 players remained who were then whittled down to a final table of nine in under five hours. With four finalists then being eliminated within the first six hands of play, the tournament soon after found itself down to four-handed play.
Gabriel Morin then went out in 4th place ($211,353 ) and McLaughlin in 3rd ($211,353), thus heralding in the heads-up phase of the competition with Kirk Caldwell holding a 2 to 1 chip advantage over Ben White.
Thirty minutes later and the final hand was played after Kirk Caldwell was dealt pocket eights to his opponent’s Ac-Qs. All the chips were soon pushed to the centre of the table pre-flop and with the board falling 9-9-7-J-8, Ben White finished the runner-up for a payday worth $414,918.
Meanwhile, Kirk Caldwell captured the WSOP gold bracelet and the $688,276 top prize.