Craig McCorkell Wins First UK Bracelet Of 2012 WSOP

Craig McCorkell has picked-up Britain’s first gold bracelet of the 2012 WSOP, after taking down Event #36: $3k No Limit Shootout for $368,593.
By the start of Day 3 the 587 player field have been reduced to a final table of ten. At this point, all eyes were upon Antonio Esfandiari, Roberto Romanello, and last year’s WSOP bracelet winner Athanasios Polychronopoulos, nevertheless, it was the 26 year old UK pro who stole the show in the end.
The UK’s other hope, Roberto Romanello had to be content with a 7th place finish ($48,92) after being dealt Qc-9c and going all-in on a 9d-8d-5d flop only to be called by Jonathan Lane with pocket tens.
A little later, Polychronopoulos (A-K) moved all-in pre-flop and was called by Esfandiari (J-J), but the Q-9-2-8-9 board sealed Polychronopoulos’ fate, who exited in 5th for $84,436. Subsequently, Esfandiari (Jc-10c) and Jonathan Lane (6c-5s) both made straights on a 9c-8s-7s-Qc-Qs board, but after going all-in Lane saw the bad news and so exited in 4th for a $112,512 payday.
Commenting on his approach to the game thus far, Craig McCorkell said: “ICM was important to play quite tight, quite solid, and try to get three-handed to give yourself a chance. I’m really confident in my heads up game, so when I got heads up, I felt really, really confident.”
That happened after Esfandiari was reduced to a short-stack and exited in 3rd ($151,613) having moved all-in, but with his Kd-9d badly dominated by McCorkell’s K-10. As the heads-up phase of the competition got underway, McCorkell was at a roughly 2 to 1 chip disadvantage against Jeremiah Fitzpatrick. He soon managed to draw even, however, before both players were all-in with McCorkell’s pocket eights holding strong on a 10-6-K-9-10 against his opponent’s A-8.
With just 45k in chips left to Craig McCorkell’s 5.24 million, Fitzpatrick was out two hands later and received $228,261 for his hard fought efforts. In the meantime, Craig McCorkell picked-up a career first WSOP bracelet, as well as putting the UK on the 2012 WSOP map.
The final table payouts were as follows:
1. Craig McCorkell – $368,593
2. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick – $228,261
3. Antonio Esfandiari – $151,613
4. Jonathan Lane – $112,512
5. Athanasios Polychronopoulos – $84,436
6. Alessandro Longobardi – $63,988
7. Roberto Romanello – $48,924
8. Thiago Nishijima – $37,707
9. Joe Tehan – $29,277
10. Sardor Gaziev – $22,899