WSOP 2013: Brett Shaffer Wins $1,500 NL For $665,397

Brett Shaffer has won WSOP $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em (Event #53), after overcoming a field of 2,816 players players over three days on his way to capturing a gold bracelet, and collecting the $665,397 first place prize.
Following his impressive victory at the Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, the US poker pro commented: “I am just happy to have my first win, and I am glad it is a bracelet. You know, I always kind of knew I would eventually have a six-figure cash and that was always my end goal for playing tournaments.”
The $1,500 NL event attracted one of the biggest fields of this year’s WSOP to create a prize pool worth $3,801,600. Amongst the notable names booking a cash at the tournament was Paul Volpe in 283rd ($2,775), Amanda Musumeci in 200th ($3,345), Chris Moorman in 196th ($3,345), Barry Greenstein in 128th ($4,181), and Tyron Krost in 12th ($38,282).
Brett Shaffer then bested a tough final table, which included Mike Watson and Loni Harwood, to get heads-up against the 2010 EPT London winner David Vamplew. After 23 hands Brett Shaffer was subsequently awarded the gold bracelet after his A-9 hit top two pair on the flop against Vamplew’s pocket queens.
Commenting later on his experience at the final table, Shaffer said: “I don’t know, you can’t get intimidated by guys you know are going to be making really good decisions. You just have to get in there, do the best you can do, and do the exact same.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Brett Shaffer $665,397
2 David Vamplew $413,157
3 Arttu Raekorpi $291,392
4 Loni Harwood $210,456
5 Mike Watson $153,850
6 Deigo Zeiter $113,819
7 Jonathan Cohen $85,193
8 Darren Rabinowitz $64,513
9 Matias Ruzzi $49,420