Brian Hastings and Ben Yu Latest Pros to Capture WSOP Bracelets

The 2018 World Series of Poker is fast approaching its conclusion, with all but two of its 78 bracelet schedule already completed, one of which is the $1 Million Big One for One Drop scheduled to get underway later today. As the Series begins to wind down, two previous WSOP winners have taken the opportunity to further pad their bracelet hauls.

While Brian Hastings took down Event #76: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E for $233,202 to increase his bracelet tally to four, Ben Yu made Event #77: $50,000 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller his own, and secured a third career bracelet, whilst also added a whopping $1,650,773 to his bankroll.

Brian Hastings Wins $3,000 H.O.R.S.E

The $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. event attracted 354 players, with its $955,800 prize pool ensuring that 54 players would at least see a return on their investments. This included the likes of Felipe Ramos in 37th ($5,105), Dan Heimiller in 26th ($5,694), Eli Elezra in 24th ($6,524), Jeff Lisandro in 18th ($6,524), and John Hennigan in 11th ($11,456).

After the final table got underway, Brian Hastings sent Lee Markholt to the rail in 5th, followed by Jeff Madsen in 4th, both of whom exited the competition during hold’em rounds. Hastings subsequently eliminated Tim Marsters in 3rd whilst playing Omaha hi-lo to force heads-up play against Andrew Brown for the bracelet.

Despite Hasting starting the final battle at a 4-1 chip disadvantage, he quickly managed to take control of the game and surged ahead to an almost 14-1 lead when the final hand occurred during Omaha hi-lo. Hasting’s 10s-10h-7h-4s hand ultimately triumphed over Brown’s Ah-9h-5c-2d holding after the dealer laid out a Qh-Jc-9d-2h-Jd board, in the process sending Brown crashing out in a runner-up position. Commenting later on his remarkable victory, the 30 year-old pro explained:

“It feels amazing, this was my last event of the summer and I had a couple of runs before this, but to end it this way just feels great.. Andrew is a good player and things just went my way.”

In addition to now capturing 4 WSOP bracelets, Hastings also boasts $3,087,453 in live tournament earnings, to go with the almost $5 million he was won playing online cash games. Hastings is getting married to his fiancee Sonya later this year, and said that the $233,202 he won for his win in Las Vegas will go a long way towards buying a house for the couple.

Final Table Results

1: Brian Hastings $233,202
2: Andrew Brown $144,128
3: Tim Marsters $97,340
4: Jeff Madsen $67,121
5: Lee Markholt $47,275
6: Hye Park $34,027
7: Dutch Boyd $25,040
8: Bruno Fitoussi $18,849

Ben Yu Wins $50,000 NLHE High Roller

The $50,000 NLHE High Roller saw a total of 128 players fork out the huge buy-in to create a prize pool worth $6.14 million. Twenty players would subsequently receive payouts in the tournament, including such formidable pros as Stefan Schillhabel in 17th ($74,623), Mustapha Kanit in 13th ($97,160), Ryan Riess in 12th ($115,102), Jason Koon in 11th ($115,102), Benjamin Pollak in 10th ($139,699), and Elio Fox in 9th ($139,699).

The final table of eight also read like a who’s who of poker, but eventually the bracelet would be contested between Ben Yu and Florida pro Sean Winter. Yu entered heads-up holding a 5 million chip advantage over Winter, and just two hands later the latter check-called Yu’s (K-Q) all-in move holding A-9.

Unfortunately for Winter, the dealer laid out a J-3-7-K-6 board to deny him a career first bracelet, while Yu completed a hat-trick of WSOP victories, including in 2015 winning the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for $291,456, and in 2017 taking down the $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship for $232,738. Following a performance that increases his career winnings to $5,250,029, Yu stated:

“I’ve had a really good summer. I’ve run really well, been very fortunate. So I just thought you know summer is about to be over. Pretty content with it. And this is just like the super special golden cherry on top of everything.”

Ben Yu has had a pretty busy 2018 WSOP, and has cashed a total of 15 times, including a 4th place finish at $1,000 No Limit Hold’em – Double Stack for $63,327, a 3rd place finish at $10,000 Seven Card Stud – Championship for $99,540, a runner-up finish at $25,000 Pot Limit Omaha – High Roller for $866,924, and now victory at $50,000 No Limit Hold’em for $1,650,773.

Final Table Results

1: Ben Yu $1,650,773
2: Sean Winter $1,020,253
3: Nick Petrangelo $720,103
4: Isaac Haxton $518,882
5: Igor Kurganov $381,874
6: Manig Loeser $287,174
7: John Racener $220,777
8: Jake Schindler $173,604