One of those "big" PLO hands was bound to come up sooner or later in this heads-up math between Dan Shak and Chris Bell. It finally came in Level 28. Bell limped his button and Shak checked the big blind. Shak had first action on a flop of and checked over to Bell, who bet 100,000. Shak then raised pot, to 460,000 total.
Bell showed a penchant for taking his time to think through many of his decisions heads-up and this one was no different. After about 40 seconds he called, and once again the feature table set became very, very quiet. The turn paired the board and put three hearts out. Shak bet pot, Bell was all in and Shak called!
Shak: , the nut flush and a low draw
Bell: , a full house
With Bell having made a full house, Shak would need a 3, 4, 5 or 6 on the river in order to secure a low and chop the pot. The river fell to finally eliminate Dan Shak and secure the win for Chris Bell. Gavin Smith, who won a bracelet last night and has been sweating this final table most of the night, gave Bell a huge hug while Shak went to his railbirds for solace. He'll leave with $202,142 in prize money.
We came back today with a daunting 21 players, and after play was delayed for some time owing to Erik Seidel playing the Tournament of Champions, it was doubtful whether we'd make it at all and it was suggested for a while that we might have to come back tomorrow to play down to a winner.
Bearing all this in mind, it's actually been a remarkably speedy final.
The nine gentlemen who made it as far as the official final had an extraordinary 13 bracelets between them - three in the hands of Perry Green, eight for Erik Seidel and one apiece for Dave Ulliott and Rob Hollink - and that number has now been upped to 14. Chris Bell already had an impressive record before he reached this final table, including three WSOP final tables, but now he has achieved the fondest dream of every poker player - his first WSOP bracelet.
As the Rio cleaners vaccuum around us, it's a bunch of extremely happy railers who pose around their boy Chris Bell - particularly happy and proud is Gavin Smith, who of course won his own first bracelet last night. And indeed it's been a notably amicable, jovial and well-supported final. The chip lead changed hands many times over the course of the night and any of our finalists would have made a worthy champion. This one, however, belongs to Bell.
![[user75032]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
and checked over to Bell, who bet 100,000. Shak then raised pot, to 460,000 total.
paired the board and put three hearts out. Shak bet pot, Bell was all in and Shak called!
, the nut flush and a low draw
, a full house
to finally eliminate Dan Shak and secure the win for Chris Bell. Gavin Smith, who won a bracelet last night and has been sweating this final table most of the night, gave Bell a huge hug while Shak went to his railbirds for solace. He'll leave with $202,142 in prize money.
