Taylor wins WSOP gold bracelet, $184,950

Brendan Taylor won the $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout championship at the World Series of Poker on Saturday morning to claim his first WSOP gold bracelet and $184,950 on Saturday night.

Taylor is originally from Pasadena, Calif., and now resides in Las Vegas, Nev. Taylor's most notable previous achievement was a third-place finish in a WSOP event in 2006.

"When I came out here in 2005, I told myself 'I am going to win a gold bracelet this year,'" said Taylor. "Of course, I didn't do it that year. I didn't do it the next, and the next, and the next. Two years ago, we got down to four-handed and I had an average chip stack and I think I was the best player at the table. And, sure enough I was the next player out within 10 hands. So, this is a great feeling."

The runner up was Ben Yu, a poker pro from Henderson, Nev. He received $114,484. Incredibly, the top two finishers are fellow poker players who share the same house in Las Vegas. Taylor and Yu live in a home with four professional poker players.

Taylor is a 30-year-old professional poker player. He attended Emory College in Atlanta. Taylor's passion, aside from poker, is cooking. He is a graduate of the renowned Culinary Institute of America (C.I.A.) and worked as a chef at Bayone's, in New Orleans. He hopes to win enough money playing poker to eventually open up his own restaurant.

"I was working and started making more money (playing poker)," said Taylor. "So, I planned to take a year off and then go back to cooking, but this worked out well."

Yu has now cashed three straight years at the WSOP. This was his biggest cash to date, paying $114,484.

When the heads-up match began, Taylor enjoyed about a 3-to-2 chip lead over Yu. The duel lasted only about 15 minutes.

On the final hand of the tournament, Taylor was dealt ace-seven of diamonds, while Yu held ace-nine. Taylor paired his seven on the flop and made two pair for the victory.

Jonathan Little, from Las Vegas, Nev., finished third, while Joseph McGowan, also of Las Vegas, was fourth. Brian Tate, from Tempe, Ariz., was fifth, Michael "Car Wash" Schneider, from Minneapolis, Minn., was sixth, Sijbrand Maal, from Amsterdam, Holland, was seventh, and Terrance Chan, from Vancouver, B.C., was eighth.

The top 64 finishers in the 548-player field collected prize money. Players who won their first table were guaranteed an in-the-money finish. Former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included Chau Giang, Jeff Ahmadi, Jimmy Shultz, and Tomas Alenius.

Pat Pezzin cashed for the seventh time this year, which is now one cash behind the 2010 leader – Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler.

Modified from notes provided by Nolan Dalla for www.wsop.com.