WSOP 2013: Matthew Waxman Wins $1K NL Event For $305,952

Matthew Waxman has won the WSOP $1,000 No Limit Hold’em (Event #7), after defeating a field of 1,837 players over three days to win a prestigious gold bracelet, and collect the $305,952 first place prize.
Waxman now boasts $2,515,479 in live winnings and commenting on his latest victory at the Rio in Las Vegas, said that capturing a WSOP bracelet was  like lifting a giant weight of his shoulders. As Waxman explained: “The level of players at this final table definitely brings prestige to a bracelet like this. Though my WPT win was more money, it doesn’t compare to this. There’s nothing better for a professional poker player to win their first bracelet, now I’m two-thirds of the way to a Triple Crown.”
The $1,000 buy-in tournament attracted a whole slew of notable names to the event to create a prize pool worth $1,653,300. Amongst those pros cashing in but falling short of a final table appearance was Adam Levy in 136th ($2,033), Brandon Hall in 55th ($4,298), David Peters in 46th ($5,075), Annette Obrestad in 42nd ($6,051), and Paul Wasicka in 33rd ($7,307).
The final table, too, was stacked with top talent including such players as Eric “basebaldy” Baldwin, Amit Makhija, Jason Koon, Brent Hanks and, of course, Matthew Waxman himself. Waxman (Q-Q) then proceeded to eliminate Tuu Ho in 8th ($29,147), and Robert Dreyfuss in 7th ($38,340), before doing likewise to Amit Makhija in 4th ($94,353).
After Eric Baldwin took out Jess Diquino in 3rd ($130,825), the heads-up phase of the competition got underway between the two poker talents. However, as the blinds escalated Baldwin with just 6bb moved all-in holding 7-4, only to be called by Waxman with A-5. The flop subsequently produced an ace, which proved good enough to win the  bracelet.
Commenting after his victory, Waxman explained: “I tried to avoid higher variance spots until the end because I had nice chips to sit back on the whole time. I really had to work hard to win this one. I can’t believe I had to work this hard at a final table for a $1,000. This was probably harder than a lot of $10,000 final tables.”
The final table payouts were as follows:
1 Matthew Waxman – $305,952
2 Eric Baldwin – $189,220
3 Jess Diquino – $130,825
4 Amit Makhija – $94,353
5 Brent Hanks – $68,975
6 Jacob Jung – $51,086
7 Robert Dreyfuss – $38,340
8 Tuu Ho – $29,147
9 Jason Koon – $22,435