US Pro Schmid Wins WSOP $1k NL Event

US pro Mark Schmid has just won WSOP Event #34: $1,000 No Limit Hold’em, after overcoming a field of 3,144 players over three days to collect a gold bracelet, and the $488,283 first place prize.
Following his remarkable victory, the 31 year old Lowell, Michigan resident commented:
“It’s huge for me. This is one of my life goals. I remember on my blog last year I posted my goal was to win a bracelet. I cashed three times out of eight tournaments but I didn’t even make a final table. To come through with the win was huge.”
As the final day of play got underway, there were still 27 players left in the tournament, which was then reduced down to a final table of nine after six hours.
Ten minutes later and Jeremy Kottler was out in 9th ($36,473) after pushing his Ah-2h all-in from the button into  Jonathan Clancy’s Ac-Jd.
Mark Schmid with K-Q then called and eliminated Michael Souza in 8th place ($47,622), whose pocket threes all-in push fell to a Q on the turn.
However, Mark Schmid would then have no further part in future eliminations. Instead, Australian Justin Cohen knocked Trevor Vanderveen out in 5th ($113,297),
Jonathan Clancy in 4th ($154,722). and Andrew Rudnik in 3rd ($213,747) to take a 3 to 1 chip advantage over Mark Schmid into the heads-up phase of the competition.
Nonetheless, Schmid soon managed to overcome the deficit and the definining  hand was eventually played after Cohen was dealt a pair of sevens to Schmid’s pocket queens.
Justin Cohen then collected $302,031 for his runner-up finish, while Mark Schmid was awarded the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em winners bracelet. Commenting on his win, an elated but modest Schmid explained:
“There’s so much variance in tournaments that you can’t really expect to win a bracelet. There’s good players that could go a decade without winning a bracelet just because it’s so high in variance.”