First Career WSOP Win for Former American High-school Teacher

Wednesday saw the opening event of this year’s World Series of Poker and a first carrier bracelet going to Brent Hanks, former high-school teacher and now online and live poker professional.

The WSOP is hosted in full compliance with American gambling laws and as usual is a highlight of the poker season gathering together most prominent pros and hungry for glory amateurs.

Brent Hanks took the honors and a nice sum of $517,725 that goes with them. He managed to overcome a field of 2,101 that gathered for the event 2, which was a $1,500 NLHE. It was the third time Brent has reached a final table at WSOP, but his first win ever.

United States gambling news reports that the event 2 saw pretty respected poker aces alongside the winner. Ryan Schmidt, Vanessa Selbst, JP Kelly, Jacob Bazeley, Michael Kaufman, Andrew Badecker, Richard Park, and Abdyl Konjuhi all decided to participate in the event.

As the play unfolded at one of the best American poker rooms, Badecker was out in third place and took home $224,029 of prize money. The heads up was played between Hanks and Bazeley who took the runner up spot and the hefty $322,294.

Several commentators noted that poker pro Jason Mercier would also profit from Hank’s win as he was the one who staked Hank. It’s also rumored that the friendship between the two players is going strong for years now and Mercier has been staking Hank in live tournaments for quite some time now.