Keokham surged to the bracelet after spiking two pair on the river to eliminate Shaun Colquhoun in third place. From there, Keokham could hardly sit tightly on his chair as he got closer to becoming the champion, riding that momentum into heads-up play, where he needed just two hands to defeat Christopher Zollo and close out the victory inside Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.
Coming into the final table, Keokham was the shortest stack with only ten big blinds when he shoved all-in against Colquhoun. Keokham's prospects were looking grim, but the tides turned in his favor after catching a straight on the river to earn a pivotal double-up to begin the final table.
“When I shoved with queen-jack and the other guy had pocket queens, and I rivered a ten for a straight, that doubled me up and I felt like this [tournament] is mine.”
From there, instead of being the player at risk, he began eliminating his opponents. Keokham took out four final table challengers on his way to the top.
With the win, Keokham intends to have a short celebration and has plans to play in numerous events in the series. “It’s a freeroll for me," he said, rounding out his winner's interview.
$500 Industry Employees Final Table Results
Place
Player
Country
Prize
1
Phovieng Keokham
United States
$64,369
2
Christopher Zollo
United States
$42,886
3
Shaun Colquhoun
United States
$29,850
4
Michael Coombs
United States
$21,126
5
Mark Kawamoto
United States
$15,207
6
Pedro Green
Dominican Republic
$11,138
7
Connor Richards
United States
$8,301
8
Rick Muniz
United States
$6,299
9
Francois Truong
United States
$4,867
Day 2 Action
The final day started with 138 players returning to the field, all guaranteed a minimum payout of $1,006. But the objective was to take home the largest share of the $402,617 prize pool and the much-coveted WSOP bracelet.
The first few levels of the day proved to whittle the field down fast, as short stacks looked for a spin-up. Unfortunately, one of the players to fall was 2013 champion Chad Holloway. He was hoping to capture another bracelet but was eliminated before the first break of the day. Holloway was one of six PokerNews team members in contention, with Connor Richards going the furthest, making the final table before bowing out in seventh-place for $8,301.
Colquhoun, the start-of-day chip leader, told PokerNews that he was quite confident with his chance to grab a bracelet. His self belief was well-placed as he was constantly among the top five chip leaders, and entered the final table with a very healthy stack. Having placed fourth in the same tournament in 2022, he wanted to improve on that result. But his hopes were dashed by Keokham’s luck, as the eventual champion outdrew him twice during the final table.
The Final Three
Shaun Colquhoun
After eliminating Michael Coombs in fourth place, Keokham became unstoppable. Facing Culquhoun once again, Keokham decimated his opponent's dreams of winning the tournament by replicating the events that happened at the start of the final table.
Culquhoun was ahead with a flopped pair of aces, but Keokham hit the river once again to set up a heads-up battle with Zollo.
Phovieng Keokham
Celebrations began quickly with just the two players remaining as Keokham claimed a third of Zollo’s chips on the first hand of heads-up. The newest WSOP bracelet winner needed just one more hand to finish the job, drilling the turn this time to claim victory.
