Grapenthien Beats Brunson For WSOP $10k Seven Card Stud Title

Online cash game grinder Matt Grapenthien has been competing for WSOP bracelets for over ten years, but now the Chicago pro has realized a dream after outlasting a tough field of players at the $10,000 Seven Card Stud event, including Todd Brunson heads-up, to claim his first winners bracelet, as well as the $268,473 first place prize.
Following his impressive victory at the Rio in Las Vegas, Matt Grapenthien, commented: “I played a lot of Stud, but then Stud kind of started to die out. I’ve played this tournament a bunch of years, and never actually even cashed in it, but it’s always a strong field, and not a lot of amateur players would ever think about playing a Stud tournament. It’s always been my favorite game.”
The $10,000 Seven Card Stud event attracted 102 of the best players in the game to create a prize pol worth $958,800. With just 16 places then getting paid, John Anthony Cernuto managed to book himself a 14th place finish for $19,463, while Barry Greenstein was eliminated in 13th ($19,463), Richard Ashby in 10th ($26,299), and Jesse Martin in 9th ($26,299).
The final table of eight was equally as stacked with talent and counted amongst its line up was 13-times WSOP winner Phil Hellmuth Jr, Todd Brunson, Australian pro James Obst, in addition to the 90-year-old hole card camera innovator and WSOP bracelet winner Henry Orenstein.
Five hours later Matt Grapenthien would subsequently take a 3-1 chip advantage over Todd Brunson into heads-up play, but it would take a further four hours before the defining hand was played with Grapenthien’s pair of 8s beating Brunson’s pair of fives to earn the title. After a decade of attempts, Grapenthien said he was overjoyed to finally win a bracelet, although seeing the bracelet brought out during heads-up was almost too much for him to bear. As Grapenthien, explains:
“I got emotional looking at the bracelet, and I almost wished we were in opposite seats where he could look at it and I couldn’t. I didn’t want to see it, and I almost asked them to take it away – but I don’t know if they would have done that. Maybe closed it or turned it around, I just didn’t want to think about it. Especially when I could almost taste it, when I was up 2.5 million to .5 million, then I lost a couple of hands and it almost started to slip away. I didn’t want to get too excited.”
Final Table Results:
1st: Matt Grapenthien – $268,473
2nd: Todd Brunson – $165,891
3rd: James Obst – $103,895
4th: Ben Yu – $75,227
5th: Steve Landfish – $58,793
6th: Phil Hellmuth – $46,885
7th: Henrick Hecklen – $38,073
8th: Henry Orenstein – $31,419