US Marine Ted Gillis Wins WSOP $1,500 NL (Event #19) For $514,027

Retired Marine Sergeant Ted Gillis has emerged victorious at the WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em (Event #19), after overcoming a field of 2,086 players over three days on his way to winning a prestigious gold bracelet, and collecting the huge $514,027 first place prize.
Following his impressive achievement, Gillis commented: “I played a little when I was in the Marines. But it was really my brother who got me into it, he was into the WSOP before I knew what it was. Yeah, it’s [winning a bracelet] a big deal. Maybe, what, 0.5 percent of poker players in the world can say they have a bracelet?”
The $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event was a popular tournament and attracted a good-sized field to create a prize pool worth  $2,816,100. Amongst the notable names then cashing in at the event was Jason Somerville in 84th ($4,505), Dutch Boyd in 56th ($7,152), Matt Affleck in 36th ($12,390), Phil Collins in 16th ($18,755), and Max Silver in 13th ($23,486).
By the time the final table of nine had been reached, Ted Gillis found himslf competing against such formidable opposition as Hiren Patel, Jamie Kaplan, Mustapha Kanit, Jacobo Fernandez and John Hennigan. Ted Gillis (A-Q) subsequently scored his first final table elimination by sending Dejan Divkovic (A-6) to the rail in 3rd ($222,429) to usher in heads-up against 2-times WSOP bracelet winner John Hennigan for the title.
As the final battle commenced, Gillis held a 5.6 million to 3.8 million chip advantage over his remaining opponent, and thirty hand later the defining hand was played with John Hennigan moving all-in preflop with Q-9, only to be called by Gillis with A-6. The dealer then put out a 10-10-A-7-K board to consign John Hennigan to a runner-up finish worth $319,993, while Ted Gillis, as he put it, “Kind of made a mark in history.”
Final Table Results:
1 Ted Gillis        $514,027
2 John Hennigan    $319,993
3 Dejan Divkovic   $222,429
4 Jacobo Fernandez $160,193
5 Mustapha Kanit   $117,079
6 Jaime Kaplan        $86,609
7 Hiren Patel        $64,911
8 Edison Shields   $49,267
9 Dylan Thomassie  $37,834