Upeshka De Silva Wins WSOP Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout
Upeshka De Silva won the World Series of Poker Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for $229,923, beating a field of 369 players to win his second gold bracelet.
De Silva won three tables in three days to secure the tournament title. In the final hand, De Silva and Louis Helm got all the chips in preflop. De Silva had a dominating lead with his ace-jack against Helm's ace-eight, and his hand was still best on the river.
The champion's latest WSOP win brings his live earnings to over $1,779,000. While he pocketed almost a quarter of a million dollars on Saturday, his biggest career cash is still from 2015 when he won his first bracelet in Event #45: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em for $424,577.
De Silva explained how he almost didn't make it in time to register for this event because his flight was delayed. He ended up biting the bullet and paid three times the price for a flight with another airline and made it just in time.
"I told my friends before I won my first bracelet that I was going to win two, so I don't know if that means I'm capped now," he laughed.
When asked about Helm's game, he said, "Louis played very well. He played a very good limp-re-raise all-in strategy against me. I kept trying to isolate him but he just kept going all in."
De Silva went on to explain how he wanted to play small ball and chip away at him. "I felt like my heads-up game was a little bit better so I decided to take a more low-variance style, grind him down."
While De Silva seems to be on cloud nine after winning yet another bracelet, he is slated to have an even better year, as he is set to get married. For the rest of 2017, De Silva plans on continuing to crush this series, travel to the biggest stops of the year, and fit in some time to get hitched while he's at it.
Event #3 Final Table Results
| Place | Player Name | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Upeshka De Silva | United States | $229,923 |
| 2 | Louis Helm | United States | $142,115 |
| 3 | Linglin Zeng | China | $103,449 |
| 4 | Jan Schwippert | Germany | $76,018 |
| 5 | Olivier Busquet | United States | $56,397 |
| 6 | Casey Carroll | United States | $42,246 |
| 7 | John Richards | United States | $31,955 |
| 8 | Mark Mcmillin | United States | $24,410 |
| 9 | Jean Gaspard | United States | $18,832 |
| 10 | Taylor Paur | United States | $14,675 |
Final Table Action
Although all 10 players began the final table with even stacks due to the shootout format, it wasn't long before the action took off, big pots became the norm, and the bustouts began. First to hit the rail was Taylor Paur when he ran king-ten into Mark McMillan's king-jack. Next was bracelet winner Jean Gaspard, who got all his chips in preflop with ace-king suited against Helm, who held queen-four. Helm flopped a queen and went runner-runner to make a wheel and eliminate Gaspard in ninth place.
Shortly thereafter, McMillin became the eighth-place finisher when his queens ran into Jan Schwippert's aces. Next, John Richards busted in seventh place when he lost a coin flip with pocket sixes against Linglin Zeng's ace-jack. Casey Carroll fell in sixth place when he got his stack in the middle preflop holding king-queen and failed to improve against Helm's ace-jack.
The fifth-place finisher was Olivier Busquet, who also lost a coin flip against Helm when his pocket tens didn't outrun Helm's ace-queen.
Helm continued to accumulate chips when he busted Schwippert in fourth place. Schwippert shoved from the button with a naked ace and didn't improve against Helm's pocket nines. On the very next hand, Linglin Zeng was eliminated when her ace-ten suited ran into pocket nines, but this time, it was the eventual champion De Silva who sent one to the cashier. After that, De Silva and Helm were heads-up, and what happened next is history.
