The lowest buy-in No Limit Hold’em events at the WSOP always have massive fields, and this year’s Event 20 was no different. A whopping 3,175 players put up $1,000 to play the tournament, creating a prize pool of $2,857,500. This meant $493,091 for first place, which is pretty good for a $1,000 investment.

Three hundred and forty two players made the second day of the event which left the remainder of the field just twenty from the money. As with most low buy-in events, the bust outs were fast and furious, especially after the money bubble burst and everyone was guaranteed $1,914.

When the money bubble burst, there were several big name pros left in the field. Such players included Shaun Deeb, Hoyt Corkins, John Phan, and Scott Montgomery. While they survived the initial post bubble chaos, they were unable to make it to Day 3.

Amongst the eliminations, two notable names arose and cemented themselves atop the leaderboard heading into Day 3. Jason Somerville and Tim West are two players that have had both live and online success in the past, and they finished Day 2 first and second in chips respectively.

Also lurking in the background was Lex “RaSZi” Veldhuis. Hailing from Holland, Veldhuis has been around for quite some time now but has recently had more exposure thanks to the PokerStars Big Game. He learned to play poker online and has transitioned well from the online to live game.

Twenty five players made Day three. Somerville continued his run, building his stack even larger as his T9 suited managed to run down a player’s AT all-in preflop. However, the trip to the final two tables happened quite fast and some bigger stacks emerged. Veldhuis had a great first hour of Day 3, going from a short stack to third in chips with eighteen remaining. West was right behind him and Somerville fell back to the middle of the pack as stacks consolidated.

Much like WSOP Event 18, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event, the tournament picked up massive speed on the final day, and players started dropping like flies. Shane Rose was able to knock two players out at once with AK versus 99 and AJ, bringing the field down to 16 people.

West, one of the larger stacks, unfortunately suffered from a bit of a cooler a short time later. He flopped top pair and a flush draw versus the middle set of Diana Allen, and no running full house or flush came to his rescue. He finished in fifteenth place for $22,317.

Somerville righted his ship before the final table and was amongst the chip leaders as play went on. The same can’t be said for the last remaining PokerStars pro in the field. Veldhuis managed to get all-in with AQ versus Alex Martin’s AJ preflop. He flopped a pair but Martin flopped a flush draw, and while Veldhuis faded the turn, he couldn’t do the same on the river. He busted in 11th place, and Martin was awarded with an above-average stack.

As the final table kicked off, Somerville found himself in third place with seventy big blinds. He had the most big money experience of all the players at the final table with multiple WSOP cashes on his resume. He even made two WSOP final tables last year.

Somerville was relatively quiet when it first became 9-handed, but he kicked it up a notch once it got 7-handed. He took down a few mid-sized pots, and then he knocked Allan out with KK versus her KJ on a J8227 board. This meant that Allan was out in 7th place for $63,493 and that Somerville had a 2nd place stack with 6 remaining.

It should be no surprise that he ended up chip leader going into heads-up play because he single-handedly busted the rest of the table. When heads-up started against Yashar Darian, the players were very deep. Somerville had 5.2 million, Darian had 4.25 million, and blinds were just 25K/50K with a 5K ante. With nearly two hundred big blinds in play, everyone was looking forward to a long heads-up battle.

Poker never goes the way it should, though, does it? The heads-up match ended up lasting just one hand! Darian decided to 3-bet Somerville’s raise, and when Somerville 4-bet, Darian made it a 5-bet all-in. People were shocked to see that Darian had just K4o, and Darian was appalled to see Somerville’s AA. Darian flopped a K but nothing helped him on later streets, so he was eliminated in 2nd place for $305,009.

Somerville took 1st place for $493,091 and his very first bracelet! He already had 5th, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place finishes in previous WSOP events, so it’s probably safe to say that he was relieved to finally get the win.

Congratulations to everyone cashed Event 20! Please see below for the full list of final table cashes and be sure to keep a close eye on FTR as we continue to cover the WSOP.

1 – Jason Somerville – $493,091
2 – Yashar Darian – $305,009
3 – Travis Atkins – $215,855
4 – Richard Fridvalszki  – $156,248
5 – Alex Martin – $114,414
6 – Gian Carlos Oliveri  – $84,753
7 – Diana Allen – $63,493
8 – Shane Rose – $48,091
9 – James Schaaf – $36,833