Joe Cada scored his third-ever WSOP victory a few hours ago after he remained the last man standing in the $3,000 SHOOTOUT event. The player thus claimed his third gold bracelet and boosted his WSOP earnings, which already exceed $10 million, by adding a payout of $226,218.

This year’s $3,000 SHOOTOUT drew a field of 363 entries to nearly crash last year’s record-breaking attendance. A prize pool of $980,100 was generated and was split in payouts for the top 50 finishers.

The tournament’s final day was played on Saturday at the host casino. There were ten players seated at the final table when cards were thrown in the air. Cada was leading that final pack after surviving his two tables from the two previous days of play.

It should also be pointed out that Cada was among the headliners of the final table. The player took down the WSOP World Championship in 2009. Being just 21 at the time, he became the youngest player to have ever won the Main Event.

Another former World Championship victor was, too, among the final ten in the $3,000 SHOOTOUT event. Just like Cada, Joe McKeehen, the 2015 Main Event champ was looking to win his third gold piece from the series. The player eventually busted in third place after his set of sixes clashed into Cada’s set of Kings. McKeehen took home $101,766 for his efforts.

McKeehen’s elimination occurred on Hand #173 of the final table. Cada was thus left with just a single opponent to battle it out for the title. Heads-up kicked off with the eventual champion holding a massive chip lead. Cada held 4.68 million in chips to the 700,000 Sam Phillips, his final opponent, had at the time.

Despite the frighteningly huge disadvantage, Phillips showed very quickly that he would battle for the title fiercely. He doubled on the very first hand of heads-up and from that point on, it was a duel of swift swinging of chips back and forth from one player to the other.

Heads-up took 23 hands before an elimination occurred and the name of the champion became known. Hand #196 was the last one to be dealt last night. On it, Phillips shoved pre-flop for his last 130,000 with [8c][6c] and Cada called with [Jh][3c]. The board ran out [7d][Js][8h][Jc][8s] to give Cada the better set. Phillips thus headed to the payout desk to collect his runner-up’s consolation prize of $139,804.

The SHOOTOUT tournament was the third one on the schedule of this year’s WSOP. This summer, the world’s longest running series will award a record number of 78 gold bracelets and will be running all the way through July 17 at Rio All-Suite Hotel and Casino Las Vegas.

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