WSOP 2018: Jay Kwon Wins Career-First Bracelet in Event #50 – $1,500 Razz For $125,431

American player Jay Kwon (cover image) was a low-key name at the 2018 World Series of Poker (WSOP) till now. With only $9,338 in WSOP cashes before this win, Kwon has now entered an enviable club of WSOP bracelet winners by claiming his first WSOP bracelet in Event #50: $1,500 Razz! Kwon pocketed $125,431 for his efforts in addition to the coveted gold bracelet.

“Razz is like my favorite game, and I feel like it’s an underappreciated game and people get frustrated at it, but I love the game and yeah, this means more to me than a lot of tournaments. I started playing it and it was really interesting, so I kind of got into it and just started playing it a lot. I’m somewhat of a razz specialist,” Kwon said, after his victory.

A look at Kwon’s WSOP scorecard shows that his two previous cashes were both in Razz events. In 2016 he finished 39^th in the same event to bank $2,980 while in 2011 he finished 17^th in a $2,500 Razz event for $6,358. He has been active on the WSOP Circuit tournaments and prior to this victory his best cash was in 2008 when he finished runner-up in a $1,000+60 NLHE at the Deep Stack Extravaganza III for $25,993.

A total of 389 players entered the event collecting $525,150 in prize money. 118 players survived through to Day 2 and only nine among returned on the final day with Kevin Iacofano in the chip lead. Iacofano took over the lead towards the end of Day 2 when he dented big into the stack of David Singer.

Earlier in the event, many bracelet winners fell before the money was reached, and the list of eliminations featured names like Phil Hellmuth, Barry Greenstein, John Hennigan, Benjamin Scholl, Matt Grapenthien and Max Pescatori.

Notables who made it in the money feature David Singer (12^th for $6,206), Julien Martini (16^th for $4,131), Ylon Schwartz (26^th for $3,034), John Racener (33^rd for $2,702), John Cernuto (34^th for $2,702), Cyndy Violette (39^th for $2,471), Benny Glaser (44^th for $2,471) and Chris Bjorin (50^th for $2,322).

Final Table Recap

The final table witnessed eliminations at a steady pace and the first combatant to hit the rail was Kyle Montgomery who ended up with a queen-jack low that ran into the queen-eight low of Urbanovich. Montgomery bounced off in ninth place.

Following him was Jeane David who was already very short stacked and held a queen low that could not beat Adam Owen’s ten-six low, resulting in her exit at eighth place.

Soon thereafter, Jeff Mitseff had to confront Kwon after Iacofano folded on fifth street and Owen folded on fourth. After the board completed, Kwon drew out into a queen low while Mitseff could complete only a king low and was eliminated in seventh place.

Next, it was Thomas Taylor who was shown the door in sixth place. Taylor faced Urbanovich and couldn’t improve his seven-four draw to survive against Urbanovich’s seven-five.

Several hands later, Kevin Iacofano confronted Owen who made a jack-ten low on fifth street whereas Iacofano’s jack-ten was trailing and found no help.

After a series of bets and raises, Michael Mckenna lost his complete stack in a hand against Kwon where the latter had a ten-seven made on sixth street and the former who held a nine draw failed to catch the much needed three on the seventh street, ending his run in fourth place.

In the three-handed play, Adam Owen was out first. Owen was the bring in with the Qx and he completed. Action then folded to Kwon who raised with the 4x. Owen put his stack in, and Kwon made the call. The boards ran out to reveal that Owen held 2x7x/ Qx3x4x10/ 7x while Kwon showed 8x6x/4xAx8x7x/ 6x. Kwon made an eight-seven low by sixth street and Owen managed to only complete a ten-seven low, packing off in third place.

Kwon entered the heads-up against Dzmitry Urbanovich with a bigger stack but in the very first hand Urbanovich climbed up to an even footing. Both players kept exchanging the chip lead but in the final hand, Kwon showed XxXx/ Qx9x7x6x while Urbanovich held XxXx/6xJxKx7x. Kwon was the bring-in, Urbanovich completed and Kwon called. Both players checked on fourth street and on the fifth, Kwon declared a bet. Tanking for a bit, Urbanovich made the call. Kwon then bet on sixth street, Urbanovich raised all in for 15,000 more and Kwon called. Kwon revealed 4x3x/ Qx9x7x6 and Urbanovich held 4x3x/ 6xJxKx7x. Kwon’s nine-seven were superior while Urbanovich was behind with jack-seven. Kwon maintained this after catching Qx on seventh street. For Urbanovich, the Kx he turned over was meaningless and he was relegated to the rail in runner-up place.

Final Table Results (USD)

1. Jay Kwon – $125,431

2. Dzmitry Urbanovich – $77,526

3. Adam Owen – $53,536

4. Michael Mckenna – $36,324

5. Kevin Iacofano – $25,637

6. Thomas Taylor – $18,477

7. Jeff Mitseff – $13,605

8. Jeanne David – $10,240

9. Kyle Montgomery – $7,881

Content & image courtesy WSOP.com

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