Khang Pham Wins First Gold Bracelet in Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship
Khang Pham's first ever World Series of Poker final table resulted in a gold bracelet and a life changing score. Pham bested a field of 7,954 entries, which generated a prize pool of $6,999,520, to secure the first-place prize of $677,326 in Event #46: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
"I should have got knocked out at the end of Day 3 but I ended up getting really lucky against a great player," Pham told PokerNews after his victory. From there, he gained momentum and steadily added chips to his stack.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Khang Pham | United States | $677,326 |
| 2 | Marc Wolpert | United States | $451,585 |
| 3 | Renmei Liu | Canada | $339,366 |
| 4 | Mark Bramley | United States | $256,754 |
| 5 | Luke Graham | United States | $195,573 |
| 6 | Ray Devita | Canada | $149,989 |
| 7 | Randy Levin | United States | $115,823 |
| 8 | Shawn Stuart | United States | $90,060 |
| 9 | William Byrnes | United States | $70,516 |
Day 4 Action
Twenty-six players returned for Day 4, Marc Wolpert was in pole position with 17,900,000. Wolpert started the final table with roughly thirty percent of the chips in play before getting heads-up with Pham.
The sole remaining bracelet holder was eliminated in 12th place, as Mark Seif could not add a third bracelet to his collection, but he did have an impressive run.
After roughly three hours of play, the unofficial final table was reached. Ken Deng was the first elimination in 10th place when he ran his nine-eight of spades into Wolpert’s pocket aces.
Final Table Action
Eliminations came fast and furious at this final table as four players were eliminated in the first hour of play. Wolpert took a commanding chip lead when his pocket tens bested William Byrne's pocket eights, eliminating Byrne in ninth place.
Shawn Stuart was eliminated in eighth place when his flush draw did not improve against Khang Pham’s top pair.
Randy Levin took his last stand with queen-nine but could not catch up when he was all-in preflop against Mark Bramley’s king-nine, eliminating Levin in seventh place.
Ray Devita suffered a similar fate when he went all-in off a short stack with ace-six and was called by Luke Graham’s ace-jack and did not improve, ending his ride in sixth place.
Pham needed some luck along the way and found it when the table was five-handed. In a battle of the blinds, Luke Graham shoved all-in from the small blind, having Pham covered. Pham decided to call with ace-four, but was behind Graham's ace-nine. Pham flopped top two pair against Graham's top pair, and Graham was unable to improve on the turn or river.
Luke Graham was unable to recover from his clash with Pham and was eliminated in fifth place when he ran his pocket eights into Wolpert’s pocket jacks on a clean board for Wolpert.
Bramley’s impressive tournament run ended in fourth place when he shoved all-in off a short stack with king-six and could not improve against Renmei Liu’s ace-four.
Pham added a welcome boost to his chipstack when he eliminated Renmei Liu in third place —setting up a heads up battle where the two players had almost identical chip counts to start.
Heads up play lasted for about an hour, a key hand occurred when both players flopped trips but Pham had the superior kicker, giving Pham a commanding chip lead.
The final hand of the tournament occurred when Pham flopped top pair against Wolpert’s open-ended straight draw. The chips went all in on a pivotal turn card. Wolpert improved to second pair along with his draw, prompting him to push all in. Pham's hand also improved as he now had an open-ended straight draw to complement his top pair. When the river card turned out to be a blank, Pham's supporters erupted in cheers, overjoyed that Pham had fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams.
In large field No Limit Hold'em tournaments, you need to get lucky and pick your spots. Pham was trying his best to balance those two skills. "With twelve players left, I made a move on the river with only about five million chips left and if that hand goes differently then who knows. In this tournament there are some key hands you need to win and some key hands I lost too. I should have got knocked in 50th but i didn't, so it's my moment and my tournament."
Pham's biggest supporter was bracelet winner Arash Ghaneian, who convinced him to play in the event. "Without him, I wouldn't be in this event and I certainly wouldn't have a gold bracelet around my wrist, his support meant everything."
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