"Yeahp!" Hanks wins first bracelet

Updated: June 1, 2012, 9:39 AM ET
By Andrew Feldman | ESPN.com

It typically takes a couple of weeks before a WSOP event produces a final table that truly steals the attention away from the rest of the action at the Rio. In 2012, it took only a few days, with Brent Hanks winning his first WSOP bracelet by defeating the field of 2,101 in Event 2, $1,500 no-limit hold 'em. Hanks earned $517,725 for the victory as he outlasted a final table that included former WSOP bracelet winners Vanessa Selbst, Andrew Badecker and JP Kelly.

[+] EnlargeBrent Hanks
PokerNews/WSOP Brent Hanks won his first WSOP bracelet and $517,725 in Event 2 of the 2012 WSOP

Surrounded by close friends and supporters yelling "Yeahp" with every scooped pot, the 29-year-old elementary school teacher turned professional poker player played a brilliant final table and overcame the tough challenge of Jacob Bazeley during heads-up play.

"It feels really good. It's quite an accomplishment," said Hanks after his victory. "It's the best achievement you can have in your poker career for tournaments. It's awesome."

This was Hanks fourth WSOP final table since 2008, previously finishing fourth, fifth and sixth. He's also earned $2.6 million in online tournament play.

While the key pots at the final table were ultimately the ones that determined his success, the only pot that truly mattered when telling the story of Hanks' tournament is the one played on Day 2 when he was down to a single blind and ante. All-in before the cards were even dealt, Hanks doubled up and began his run toward history.

"I got about damn low as you can get," he said. "I didn't have even enough in chips to cover the small blind and I … won four pots in five consecutive games to get right back to 20 to 25 blinds. … I was back in the tournament."

Hanks began the final table second in chips behind Bazeley. After Richard Park's elimination in ninth, Hanks eliminated two-time WSOP bracelet winner Kelly in eighth. Kelly's $49,621 in winnings pushed him over the $1 million earnings mark at the WSOP. This was his 12th WSOP cash.

As Hanks continued to hold steady in the middle of the pack, Badecker seemed ready to capture his second bracelet in two years, holding the chip lead with seven to go. Selbst moved into the lead after eliminating Michael Kaufman in seventh, but she gave away a third of her stack to Hanks less than 20 minutes later when her turned straight couldn't beat Hanks' rivered full house. Given her style of play, it's common to see Selbst's chip stack fluctuate greatly, and this final table was no exception.

Abdyl Konjuhi fell in sixth to Hanks (A-2 loses to A-K), and Ryan Schmidt made a misread on his elimination hand when he failed to believe Badecker's river shove and called off his stack with second pair (Badecker held two pair). With four remaining, Badecker and Hanks were notched at the top.

Selbst's run came to an end in fourth when she moved all-in with K-7 and was called by Badecker's K-Q. Earning $161,354, Selbst moved into second on the women's all-time money list. This was her first WSOP final table since 2008, but her successes over the past year have earned her a consistent spot in ESPN.com's poker rankings.

"Ah well, still plenty of series left for bracelets," said Selbst on Twitter.

Three-handed action is simply going to remembered as the massacre of Badecker's stack. After back-to-back coolers (where one big hand runs into another big hand), Badecker went from being the chip leader to finishing in third place. Bazeley first doubled through Badecker on a board of K-Q-10-8-10 as Badecker's Q-10 ran into Bazeley's K-K. Moments later, Badecker five-bet all-in with 10-10 and ran into the Q-Q of Hanks. That was it. Badecker earned $224,029, giving him more than $600,000 in WSOP earnings since 2011, and said very factually on Twitter that it was a, "Pretty good start to #WSOP2012."

Hanks and Bazeley shared a meal on Day 2 and joked that they would be heads-up for the title. With their premonition now a reality, they began heads-up play extremely deep, leading to a two and a half hour battle. Neither was able to pull away, and it all came down to one key pot where Bazeley five-bet all-in with 9-9 and was up against the A-8 of Hanks. An ace on the flop was all that it would take and moments later, Hanks became the newest WSOP champion.

Bazeley earned $322,294 in his eighth WSOP cash and although this may have been his biggest live score to date, the 29-year-old pro established himself as one of the best online players in the world with more than 2.5 million in online earnings.

Other notable finishers include Dan Smith (17th), Paul Wasicka (20th), John Juanda (25th) and Phil Hellmuth (61st). This was Hellmuth's 86th career WSOP cash.

Below are the complete results of Event 2 at the 2012 World Series of Poker:

Event 2: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 2,101
Prize pool: $2,836,250
Players in the money: 216
Notable finishers in bold

1. Brent Hanks ($517,725)
2. Jacob Bazeley ($322,294)
 3. Andrew Badecker ($224,029)
 4. Vanessa Selbst ($161,345)
 5. Ryan Schmidt ($117,921)
6. Abdyl Konjuhi ($87,231)
7. Michael Kaufman ($65,377)
8. JP Kelly ($49,621)
 9. Richard Park ($38,106)
10. Kennii Nguyen ($29,923)
11. Joseph Cino ($29,923)
12. Neil Willerson ($29,923)
13. Todd Keikoan ($23,655)
 14. Kwinsee Khoa Tran ($23,655)
15. Kennth Strickland ($23,655)
16. Nicolas Verkaik ($18,890)
17. Dan Smith ($18,890)
 18. Cody Zartman ($18,890)
19. Andras Stumpf ($15,287)
20. Paul Wasicka ($15,287)
 21. Hoa Pham ($15,287)
22. Azim Popatia ($15,287)
23. Eric Anderson ($15,287)
24. Sadan Turker ($15,287)
25. John Juanda ($15,287)
 26. Grzegorz Derkowski ($15,287)
27. Derek Wolters ($15,287)
28. Brian Egger ($12,479)
29. Joseph Couden ($12,479)
30. Marco Palacios ($12,479)
31. Deepak Bhatti ($12,479)
32. Antoine Nowak ($12,479)
33. Michael Moore ($12,479)
34. Justin Gavejian ($12,479)
35. Jussi Jaatinen ($12,479)
36. Adam Wessley ($12,479)
37. Alan Sass ($10,324)
38. Michael Lai ($10,324)
39. Bradley Craig ($10,324)
40. Candida Ross-Powers ($10,324)
41. Laurent Perrin ($10,324)
42. Grant Kassel ($10,324)
43. Jamie Coulter ($10,324)
44. Ronald Sullivan ($10,324)
45. Danny Smith ($10,324)
46. Paul Soucy ($8,565)
47. Kenneth Kottwitz ($8,565)
48. Michael Lee ($8,565)
49. Ubaid Habib ($8,565)
50. Jason Sagle ($8,565)
51. Stuart Marshak ($8,565)
52. Tracy Myers ($8,565)
53. Cris Eichenlaub ($8,565)
54. Philip Wiszowayu ($8,565)
55. Leo Wolpert ($7,204)
 56. Pierrot Massenat ($7,204)
57. Kerrie Lease ($7,204)
58. Ramsey Shaio ($7,204)
59. Jason Harrell ($7,204)
60. Dustin Dobrilovic ($7,204)
61. Phil Hellmuth ($7,204)
 62. Steven Merrifield ($7,204)
63. Jean Cloutier ($7,204)
64. Richard Alm ($6,112)
65. Scott Kacmarksi ($6,112)
66. Justing Gavri ($6,112)
67. Ryan Snickles ($6,112)
68. Osmin Dardon ($6,112)
69. Andrew Shack ($6,112)
70. Steve Gross ($6,112)
 71. Marcello Marigliano ($6,112)
72. Hoyt Corkins ($6,112)
 73. William Ryan ($5,261)
74. Ken Lennaard ($5,261)
75. Thad Mitchell ($5,261)
76. Jeremy Nist ($5,261)
77. Marc Aubin ($5,261)
78. Sergey Pevzner ($5,261)
79. Peter Campo ($5,261)
80. David Sands ($5,261)
 81. Jason Russell ($5,261)
82. Elliot Shmukler ($4,538)
83. Dylan Wilkerson ($4,538)
84. David Ritter ($4,538)
85. Michael Hauptman ($4,538)
86. Russell Mcdermott ($4,538)
87. Nicholas Wilbur ($4,538)
88. Daniel Idema ($4,538)
89. Peter Rho ($4,538)
90. Brian Davis ($4,538)
91. Nadya Magnus ($4,538)
92. Jeremy Beckman ($3,970)
93. Ashly Butler ($3,970)
94. Noah Schwartz ($3,970)
95. Paul Foltyn ($3,970)
96. Dean Schultz ($3,970)
97. Xuan Nguyen ($3,970)
98. Jesse Martin ($3,970)
99. Mark Pacyna ($3,970)
100. Jacob Balsiger ($3,970)
101. David Slowik ($3,531)
102. Brandon Cantu ($3,531)
 103. Mike Allis ($3,531)
104. Eli Elezra ($3,531)
 105. Thomas Miller ($3,531)
106. Ernesto Magat ($3,531)
107. Rittie Chuaprasert ($3,531)
108. Louis Lake ($3,531)
109. Elizabeth Jones ($3,531)
110. Adrien Pierini ($3,531)
111. Jean-Robert Bellande ($3,531)
 112. Raymond Pool ($3,531)
113. Ryan Gentry ($3,531)
114. Michael Aron ($3,531)
115. Evan Schwartz ($3,531)
116. Edmond Barna ($3,531)
117. Wilson Benjamin ($3,531)
118. Layne Flack ($3,531)
 119. Paul Sokoloff ($3,531)
120. Christopher MacNeil ($3,531)
121. Robert Pisano ($3,531)
122. Kenny Hallaert ($3,531)
123. Giorgio Fiory ($3,531)
124. Andrew Lichtenberger ($3,531)
 125. Dylan Thomassie ($3,531)
126. Peter Hernandez ($3,531)
127. Pete Vilandos ($3,531)
128. Vanja Ovuka ($3,531)
129. Ping Liu ($3,531)
130. David Levi ($3,531)
 131. Bradley Sandig ($3,531)
132. Ian Steinman ($3,531)
133. Joshua Gottesman ($3,531)
134. Edward Sena ($3,531)
135. Ryan Welch ($3,531)
136. Michael Messick ($3,531)
137. Robert Bright ($3,176)
138. Joseph Vale ($3,176)
139. Dean Belovari ($3,176)
140. Peter Maurer ($3,176)
141. Marla Schwartz ($3,176)
142. Matthew Vengrin ($3,176)
 143. John Adamek ($3,176)
144. Brett Jungblut ($3,176)
 145. Bradley Case ($3,176)
146. Douglas Farmer ($3,176)
147. Dmitry Vitkind ($3,176)
148. Richard Conlon ($3,176)
149. David Andidora ($3,176)
150. Daniel Letts ($3,176)
151. Arthur Lim ($3,176)
152. Thomas Symonds ($3,176)
153. Axier Penagarucano ($3,176)
154. Zohair Karim ($3,176)
155. James Greer ($3,176)
156. Jamie McCarrel ($3,176)
157. Alan Levin ($3,176)
158. Jeffrey Gross ($3,176)
159. Lei Lei ($3,176)
160. Jay Helfert ($3,176)
161. Anthony Russo ($3,176)
162. Joshua Chait ($3,176)
163. William Jones ($3,176)
164. Dylan Linde ($3,176)
165. John Dobson ($3,176)
166. Aaron Won ($3,176)
167. Dan Martin ($3,176)
168. David Inselberg ($3,176)
169. Frank Guida ($3,176)
170. Matthew Juttelstad ($3,176)
 171. David Stroj ($3,176)
172. Christopher Moutzouris ($3,176)
173. James Young ($2,893)
174. Larry Williamson ($2,893)
175. Christina Risoe ($2,893)
176. Tyler Bonkowski ($2,893)
 177. Dorman Atchison ($2,893)
178. Raul Garcia ($2,893)
179. Adrian Mcgreevy ($2,893)
180. Manuel Davidian ($2,893)
181. Jason Mercier ($2,893)
 182. Derrick Yamada ($2,893)
183. Noelle Anderson ($2,893)
184. Dmitry Perfilyev ($2,893)
185. Ronald Cooper ($2,893)
186. Jay Roessler ($2,893)
187. Arash Ghaneian ($2,893)
188. Tom Bahr ($2,893)
189. Terrence Chan ($2,893)
 190. Steven Lambiris ($2,893)
191 Anthony Grappo ($2,893)
192. Tommy Chen ($2,893)
193 Rachel Whetstone ($2,893)
194. Carter Gill ($2,893)
195. Brian Hunt ($2,893)
196. Austen Johnson ($2,893)
197. Kevin White ($2,893)
198. Alex Jacob ($2,893)
 199. Chester Adamson ($2,893)
200. Jeff Lane ($2,893)
201. Keith Sexton ($2,893)
202. Evan McNiff ($2,893)
203. Charles Kemner ($2,893)
204. Simon Hennessey ($2,893)
205. Eugene Castro ($2,893)
206. Proshant Mehra ($2,893)
207. Evgeny Stalev ($2,893)
208. Jia Liu ($2,893)
209. Gary Reloj ($2,893)
210. Frank Reynolds ($2,893)
211. Ricky Crandell ($2,893)
212. Fabien Perrot ($2,893)
213. Hayden Fortini ($2,893)
214. David Mitchell ($2,893)
215. Shane Deyoung ($2,893)
216. Albert Rogers ($2,893)

Andrew Feldman

ESPN.com
Andrew Feldman is ESPN.com's Poker Editor. He is the host of the Poker Edge Podcast and co-host of ESPN Inside Deal. Andrew has covered the poker industry for ESPN since 2004.

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