Sean Dempsey had made one other final table at the WSOP and that was last year’s $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha event. We overheard Dempsey in his winner interview say that Omaha was his primary game, but it was no-limit hold’em that he mastered over the last three and a half days.
The event started four days ago and would draw 992 entrants and create a prize pool of over $2.7 million. Dempsey quietly made his way through a field that included many big names and Day 3 runs from the likes of Matt Affleck (21st) and Dylan Linde (16th).
Late Day 3 runs came to an end at the final table for Layne Flack (7th), Nam Le (6th) and Ryan Laplante (5th). After Ryan Olisar was eliminated in 4th place early in the last level of the evening the final three battled, but ended up still three-handed at the end of the final level of the night.
The scheduled three-day event had to take to a fourth day to settle things and three players returned today to fight it out. Jacob Schindler came in holding a slight chip lead over Ryan Jaconetti, but was the first go even after his flopped big versus the of Jaconetti. The turn was even bigger, but the on the river counterfeited his two pair and Jaconetti had him outkicked.
Jaconetti went into heads-up play with a more-than 2:1 chip lead, but Dempsey seemed to remain patient. They would trade jabs and double ups, until the last hand when Dempsey’s pocket jacks held against the queen-ten of Jaconetti.
With the win, Dempsey will take home his second six-figure payday from the WSOP, but this one is nearly five times his previous at $548,460. In addition, Dempsey earned a nice piece of jewelry and title of “WSOP bracelet winner."
Hand #284: Ryan Jaconetti moved all in and Dempsey snap-called, tabling the . Jaconetti would need help for his to stay alive. The flop gave Dempsey the set and Jaconetti the open-ended straight draw. The turn changed nothing and the river finished off Jaconetti and sent all of the chips to Dempsey.
Hand #209: Ryan Jaconetti raised to 250,000 from the button and Jacob Schindler three-bet to 625,000 from the big blind. Jaconetti moved all in and Schindler made the call. Jaconetti tabled and Schindler was behind and at risk with the .
Schindler’s rail erupted after the flop and even more after the turn. The river stunned everyone, however, and Jaconetti's queen played. Jaconetti took the big pot and sent Schindler to the rail.
After three days and 30 levels of play, things were still not settled for Event #39: $3,000 No Limit Hold’Em. Three players will return today to play to a winner. Jacob Schindler (3,860,000) and Ryan Jaconetti (3,410,000) finished Day 3 as the leaders and Sean Dempsey will come in as the short stack at 1,660,000.
They are each guaranteed at least $212,373, but surely have their eyes on the top prize of $548,460 and the gold bracelet.
We will bring you hand-for-hand action here on Day 4 as they play to a winner. Be sure to join the PokerNews live reporting team starting at 3 p.m. local time to see how it plays out.