Greg Merson Wins 2012 WSOP Main Event

Greg Merson has been crowned the 2012 WSOP Main Event champion, after defeating a 6,598 player field over nine days and 88 hours of personal play, to lift poker tournament’s most prestigious title, and collect the $8,531,853 first place prize.
Even before making it through to the Main Event final, the 24-year-old online cash game pro from Maryland was already enjoying a remarkable 2012 WSOP, and had cashed in three events for $1,222,327, including winning a gold bracelet at the $10k NL Six Handed event for $1,136,197.
Now with his WSOP Main Event victory, Greg Merson’s incredible haul at the 2012 WSOP includes 2 bracelets and $9,668,050 in prize money. Another accolade that will also be added to his poker career is receiving the 2012 WSOP Player of the Year, after now nudging Phil Hellmuth into 2nd spot.
After 7 and a half hours of play on Monday, three remaining October Niners returned to the Rio in Las Vegas to decide on the ultimate winner. It wouldn’t be for another 10 hours that Merson (K-Q) would eliminate Jake Balsiger (Q-10) in 3rd place ($3,799,073) to go heads-up against Sylvia.
At that stage, the blinds were at 1m/2m and a 300k ante, with Merson on a 113,900,000 stack to Jesse Sylvia’s 84,300,000. Merson then proceeded to chip up steadily until hand 339, when  Sylvia (Qs-Js) now down to 69.3 million called a re-raise all-in by Merson, who held Kd-5d. The board then rolled out 9-6-3-6-7 relegating Jesse Sylvia to a runner-up finish worth $5,295,149, while Greg Merson becomes our 2012 WSOP Main Event champion.
Congratulations to al the October Nine, and especially Greg Merson on his incredible victory. The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Greg Merson      $8,531,853
2 Jesse Sylvia      $5,295,149
3 Jake Balsiger      $3,799,073
4 Russell Thomas  $2,851,537
5 Jeremy Ausmus      $2,155,313
6 Andras Koroknai $1,640,902
7 Michael Esposito $1,258,040
8 Robert Salaburu $971,360
9 Steve Gee      $754,798