Vegas businessman wins WSOP stud high-low title, $447,446

Frank Kassela won the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split World Championship for $447,446 at the World Series of Poker in the early-morning hours on Wednesday, defeating an all-star final table lineup that included four former WSOP gold bracelet winners, including John Juanda, Steve Zolotow, Jennifer Harman, and Dario Minieri.

"Once you start playing poker, you definitely want to win a World Series gold bracelet," said Kassela. "That's why you play tournament poker."

Kassela started playing poker seriously about 10 years ago and has accumulated more than $1.5 million in overall tournament winnings. His most notable previous accomplishment at the WSOP had been a cash in last year's $40,000 buy-in 40th Anniversary Tournament.

A Chicago native, Kassela moved to Memphis at age 25, where he started Mid-American Specialties, his business which sells promotional and specialty products primarily to government offices. He recently moved to Las Vegas so he could concentrate more on poker playing.

Kassela seized the chip lead about midway through the final table, then held it for the remainder of the tournament. He clinched the title when his two pair — queens and sevens — beat runner up Alan Kessler's 10s and nines; neither player had a low. Kassela scooped and was the winner, which evoked cheers from one lone supporter in the audience — Kassela's son.

Following his victory, Kassela joked that he would give his gold bracelet to his 14-year-old daughter. This brought mock protest from Kassela's son. After contemplating who would get the bracelet, Kassela agreed that it would be best to win at least one more so each member of the family would receive the prized jewelry.

Final table qualifiers owned nine bracelets, including four for Juanda, two each for Harman and Zolotow, and one for Minieri. It was the most gold-bracelet heavy final table played at this year's WSOP.

The former bracelet winners, however, were unable to get to heads up play, as Allen "Chainsaw" Kessler finished second. The former owner of a marketing firm from Philadelphia, Pa., who now resides in Las Vegas, scored $276,485, his biggest payout in a WSOP event. Kessler was also second in an Omaha High-Low Split event in 2005. He battled Kassela tough late but could not overcome his serious chip disadvantage in the final stages of the tournament.

"He was in a really bad spot, chip count-wise, when we got heads up," said Kassela. "He was down about 4-to-1. In stud high-low, that's just insurmountable, unless you run into some perfect hands."

Harman, a well-known Las Vegas-based Fult Tilt Poker pro, finished third. She won WSOP gold bracelets in 2000 in no limit deuce-to-seven lowball and in 2002 in limit Hold'em. Harman ran out of momentum and busted out in the 10th hour of play. With her $173,159 payout, she now has more than $1.6 million in career WSOP earnings.

Steve Zolotow, also a Vegas pro, finished fourth. Zolotow's bracelets came in 1995 in Chinese poker and 2001 in pot limit Hold'em. He is originally from New York City, where he once owned a bar and was a fixture on the underground poker scene during the 1960s and 1970s. With this cash — worth $125,379 — Zolotow crossed the million-dollar threshold in WSOP career winnings.

John Juanda, also a Las Vegas Full Tilt pro, lasted nearly nine hours before busting out in fifth. Juanda, a four-time WSOP gold bracelet winner, the 2008 WSOP Europe Main Event champion, and a final table participant in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship earlier this month, collected $97,989.

Russian players took sixth and seventh place, with Moscow's Kirill Rabcov outlasting St. Petersburg's Vladimir Shchmelev.

With his third final table appearance through only 15 events, Shchmelev has rocketed out to an early lead in the 2010 WSOP "Player of the Year" race. He was the runner up in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. Shchmelev also finished seventh in the $10,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud Championship. With this final table appearance, he becomes the first player to accomplish three-final tables at this year's series. He is also the first player in history to make it to three final tables in three designated "World Championship" events in a single year.

Italy's Minieri, who won the $2.500 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit event in 2008, finished eighth.

The top 16 finishers in the 170-player field collected prize money. Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included Gary Benson (9th), Blair Rodman (15th), and Toto Leonidas (16th).

The prize pool was the richest for a seven card stud high-low tournament in history, eclipsing the record set last year by $56,400.

(Modified from original notes by Nolan Dalla for www.wsop.com)