Florida poker pro comes out on top in WSOP $1.5K No-Limit Hold'em Bounty

Name: Chris Bolek
Nationality: American
Birthplace: Quito, Ecaudor
Current Residence: Boca Raton, FL
Age: 28
Profession: Professional Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 25
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 3
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 4th in 2015 $1,500 Split Format No-Limit Hold'em

A new champion has been crowned at the 2017 World Series of Poker and it's Chris Bolek, who emerged victorious after defeating Bryan Emory in a heads-up to claim his first gold bracelet and $266,646 in Event #50: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em BOUNTY.

The tournament saw a field of 1,927 entries, which created a prize pool of $2,601,450, and each elimination added $500 to the pocket of the winner. The final table included such big names as 2014 November Niner Dan Sindelar, Argentina's Richard Dubini and Dutch poker stalwart Govert Metaal. An unscheduled fourth day was added after 121 hands of the official final table last night saw five players bag up and return to the Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino at 1 p.m. local time on 29 June.

Bolek previously won a WSOP Circuit ring at the Palm Beach Kennel Club in 2014, and he had already cashed four times at the 2017 WSOP, with a total of $404,388 in WSOP and Circuit cashes prior to his victory. He came into the final day as one of the three short stacks with just 14 big blinds and ran extremely well to emerge victorious, picking up seven bounties and his own for $500 apiece.

Born in Quito, Ecuador, Bolek now resides in Boca Raton, Florida. The professional poker player learned the game while playing home games in high school.

When asked how Bolek felt to win his first bracelet, he responded, "It feels very surreal. I came in pretty short to the final table, and I just wanted to give myself a shot to win. People say how good it is to visualize things, so I spent some time trying to do that this morning to get into the right mindset, and it just kind of all came together perfectly."

Bolek was then asked what the run was like from four-handed onward, where he seemed to just steamroll things.

"That was just a rush of cards, man," he said. "From the double-up with queen-ten versus ace-jack where I rivered a jack; that just felt unbelievable. It felt like, if I win that hand, I was just going to play well and not lose. Then I really just hit a rush of cards. I had a really good hand in every spot that I played a big pot with. The all ins worked every time, which doesn't really happen, but that was really nice for it to happen now."

While Bolek likes to travel, most of his big scores so far have come back home in Florida, and he took previously missed chances as a learning opportunity.

"I just told myself when I do get back there, just try and maker better decisions," he said. "When I was playing in Jacksonville for the WPT, I was pretty nervous for the livestream. That definitely helped a little bit. I was happy we didn't have a stream yesterday, just because it allows you to concentrate on what is going on and use the same cards. I just felt super comfortable this time around, and I think that helped a lot. I had a roommate watching and just hoped that I would last long enough to get the value of watching the live stream at first. Luckily, it worked out."

When asked what he had planned for the rest of the Series, he replied with the following: "I had a schedule in my head beforehand, so I probably won't adjust it too much. I think I am just going to enjoy the win and let it set in, and then get ready for the Main Event."

Runner-up Bryan Emory came into the day as the chip leader and kept his 11 bounty chips next to his stack the entire time. After pulling away early on, Emory seemed poised to claim the title and was still all smiles before entering heads-up with a crushing chip deficit.

1. Chris Bolek, U.S. - $266,646
2. Bryan Emory, U.S. - $164,735
3. James Gilbert, U.S. - $119,479
4. Tobias Peters, Netherlands - $87,516
5. Zhaoxing Wang, U.S. - $64,746
6. Govert Metaal, Netherlands - $48,386
7. Thomas Lutz, U.S. - $36,530
8. Richard Dubini, Argentina - $27,865
9. Dan Sindelar, U.S. - $21,477

(Article courtesy of World Series of Poker)