Mike Takayama became the Philippines’ first WSOP gold bracelet winner after outlasting the massive field of this year’s $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Super Turbo Bounty. Aside from the gold piece, which Takayama said he had always dreamt about, the player also collected $198,568 in prize money.

The $1,000 buy-in event was played on Friday at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. There were over 1,400 players to have registered when cards were thrown in the air and by the time registration closed, the field counted 2,065 persons to improve from last year’s 1,867-strong field.

A prize pool of $1,858,500 was generated and the top 310 runners left with a share of it. It is also important to note that being a bounty, the tournament awarded $300 to players for each fellow competitor they eliminated over the course of action.

The turbo format provided for quick action and great poker thrill. It took just a few hours for the 2,000-plus-person field to be reduced to the final nine who comprised the official final table. The final table itself was not a long ordeal. And it looked as if Takayama was very comfortable playing that final stage of the event.

Of all nine players left at the table, there were just two who had previously won gold bracelets from the series, with Jack Duong and Steve Jelinek being those two. Duong was eventually eliminated in eighth place, while Jelinek busted in fourth.

As for Takayama, the eventual winner was a fierce contender, playing aggressively and putting quite some pressure on his fellow final tablists. It really looked as if the player went all in more frequently than folding hands.

On two of these occasions, odds were all against him until the very last moment possible. Yet, despite all the dangerous situations Takayama put himself into, the player was the last man standing after the final hand of the day was dealt and after surviving his last all in confrontation against his Italian heads-up opponent, Lorenc Puka.

The final table lasted 49 hands, while Takayama took just ten hands to finish off Puka in their two-handed duel, despite the latter’s efforts. Puka manged to double through the eventual champion early in the match. However, he was offered no more chances to reduce the huge gap between him and his opponent.

Hand #49 of the final table turned out to be the tournament’s final one dealt, Takayama challenged Puka by moving all in and the Italian called. Takayama tabled [Kd][Jc] to Puka’s [Ad][4d]. The board ran out [5h][4h][Kh][10c][Jd] to deny the Italian player his first-ever title from the series. Puka collected $122,627 for his efforts that brought him that deep into the tournament. As for Takayama, he was ready to pose for a victory picture, celebrating his triumph and his homeland’s first WSOP gold bracelet.

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