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Phil Tom wins WSOP shootout

June 9, 2008

Phil TomThe eleventh event at this years WSOP saw financial advisor Phillip Tom win the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout and pick up his first ever bracelet.

Shootout tournaments mean that players have to negotiate their way through three consecutive Sit and Go tournaments before the winner can be crowned and Tom admitted it was a format that he liked:

“I really think it (the shootout format) fits my playing style. I have to eliminate players as I go along, and the seats are not re-filled. So, you can concentrate on the task at hand, which is to focus on your opponents who are actually at the table.”

Exactly 360 players started the event spread across 36 tables, with the winner of each table progressing to a second round of six tables. The final table consisted of the six winners from the second round all sitting down with 1,000,000 in chips.

Before his victory last night, Phil Tom had never finished higher than 22nd in a major tournament but the Las Vegas resident played what was described as “absolutely ideal poker” to throw that monkey off his back and pick up the winners cheque for $1,692,000.

Tom faced Canadian Greg Mueller in the heads up play and slowly wore him down. In what turned out to be the final hand of the tournament, Mueller threw all his chips into the on the turn with the board reading Jc 9h 3s 5c. After a long think, Tom made the call.

Mueller showed Jh 8c for top pair while Tom turned over Ad Js for top pair and top kicker.

The river was a K which helped no-one and Mueller had to accept 2nd place ($298,638) while Phil Tom was given a cheque for $477,990 and crowned Vegas’ latest champion.

“It’s a great feeling,” Tom said with a huge grin on his face. “This is what it’s all about – to win at the World Series.”

Written by ShortStack · Filed Under Poker News 

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