Upeshka De Silva Wins WSOP Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for $229,923 and His Second Bracelet
Upeshka De Silva won WSOP Event #3: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em Shootout for $229,923, beating a field of 369 players to win his second gold bracelet.
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.
Some of the notable players who made the money in this event but fell short of the final table included Dominik Nitsche, Kyle Bowker, Barry Greenstein, Jared Jaffee, John Racener, Andre Akkari, Jake Schwartz, Jean-Robert Bellande, Jean-Pascal Savard, Aaron Mermelstein, James Obst, and Matt Glantz. All of these players took home a min-cash worth $6,407.
While there were plenty of notables that made it through, some of the familiar faces to fall short of the money included Andy Frankenberger, Sorel Mizzi, Humberto Brenes, Simon Deadman, Kenny Hallaert, Cary Katz, Antonio Esfandiari, Kitty Kuo, Chris Moorman, Brian Rast, Anthony Zinno, Niall Farrell, David Benyamine, Michael Mizrachi, Mike Sexton, Liv Boeree, and Mike Leah.
, and De Silva won the pot with a pair of jacks to eliminate Helm and take the title.
, giving De Silva a set of nines to eliminate Zeng from play.
, giving Helm a set of nines and eliminating Schwippert in fourth place.
, putting Helm in the lead with a pair of aces. The turn was the 
and the river was the 
and Zeng checked. De Silva bet 42,000 and Zeng check-raised to 125,000. De Silva folded.
for trip eights, and Helm tabled 
for two pair. The turn was the 
and the river was the 
, giving Busquet a full double-up.
and De Silva check-folded to a bet of 30,000 from Busquet. 
and De Silva led out for 20,000. Schwippert folded.
and Zeng check-called a bet of 53,000 from Busquet. The turn was the 
and Helm check-folded to a bet of 50,000 from Busquet.
and looked fairly safe for Richards until the 
hit the river to send Richards to the rail.
