Greek-American Poker Pro Vilandos Wins 3rd WSOP Bracelet

Greek-American poker pro Panayote “Peter” Vilandos has won WSOP Event#50: $5k NLHE, after defeating a field of 1,001 players over four days to capture a third career WSOP bracelet, as well as the $952,694 first place prize.
The 72 year old originally from Greece won his first gold bracelet back in 1995 at the $1,500 PLO event for $148,500, followed in 2009 with victory in the $1,500 NLHE event for $607,256. With his latest remarkable win in Las Vegas, Pete Vilandos has now pushed his live tournament winnings to over $3.1 million, including 22 cashes at the WSOP for $2,410,333.
Commenting on his recent WSOP triumph, Vilandos said: “I believe I’m the Hercules of poker..I was very calm and I was focused on my opponents. They are very intelligent people, the last table was full of smart people. But, I got lucky and I played the way I know how to play.”
At the final table Pete Vilandos (A-10) scored his first elimination against a short stacked Kevin Schulz (A-6), who pushed his remaining chips preflop before being sent to the rail in 4th ($267,792) on a 10-10-6-7-7 board.
Vilandos then had to sweat after being dealt Ah-10h and getting into a preflop raising war against an all-in Dan Smith with As-Ks. Fortunately for Vilandos the board ran out 8-6-3-10-6 to dispatch Dan Smith to the rail in 3rd ($368,943), while heralding in the heads-up phase of the competition against Kyle Julius.
Before long Vilandos was able to extend his 3 to 2 chip lead to a 6 to 1 advantage, with the final hand coming an hour into heads-up with Kyle Julius (As-5s) all-in against Vilandos’ Ac-Js. Subsequently, the board ran out K-Q-4-3-10 to relegate Kyle Julius to a runner-up finish worth $589,687, while Pete Vilandos picked-up WSOP bracelet number three.
Commenting after his impressive win, Vilandos said: “Good people that are less tired in the tournament get good cards. Tired cards they go to tired people. Bad cards they go to bad people. Happy cards they go to happy people. I’m happy, I’m very strong, and I’m very healthy, so I’ve got everything coming my way.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
Pete Vilandos $952,694
Kyle Julius $589,687
Dan Smith $368,943
Kevin Schulz $267,792
Derek Gregory $197,691
Thomas Conway $148,198
Matt Giannetti $112,725
Tommy Vedes $86,896
Amir Lehavot $67,889