Evan Benton Goes From Poker Beginner to WSOP Bracelet Winner

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Jun 13, 2024 6 min read

What could be more of a dream for a poker fan than winning a bracelet in their first-ever World Series of Poker? That’s what Evan Benton managed to do when he emerged as the winner of Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em, here at the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

Just a bit over a year after he started playing poker, Benton triumphed over a field of 2,317 entries, earning his first WSOP gold bracelet along with a hefty payout of $412,484. Despite having one of the shortest stacks at the beginning of the final table, he made his way to the chip lead and defeated Balakrishna Patur during the heads-up play to win the tournament.

Finishing second, Patur won $274,972. Spain's Andres Gonzalez took third place for $201,518, while Nick Maimone reached the final table (7th, $64,202), as did Nicolas Vayssieres (9th, $38,517).

Event #28: $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em Results

Winner's Reaction

“I feel financial freedom. Honestly, it feels good,” Benton said moments after he touched his WSOP bracelet for the first time. “I did not expect to win. These guys were much better tournament players than I was. I just ran good when the time came and felt like I played pretty well throughout the day,” he added.

His story looks like a fairytale, as he started playing “just over a year ago”. “I used to play back then when I was like 12 years old, but I didn’t know anything. About a year and a few months ago, I just played with some friends and I was like, ‘man, this is kind of fun,’ and I just ran with it. I'm obsessed with it now. I play every day and study,” Benton explained.

To live the dream, Benton flew all the way from Louisiana to Las Vegas to play his first-ever World Series of Poker. “I've been here since Friday, right before the Mystery Millions, and I was supposed to go home Monday,” he said. But the beginning of the Series didn’t go as planned: “I made a few bankroll mistakes before, and I was like, ‘I'm not going home down, so let me fire in this one.’ And it paid off. I guess the wife's not so mad anymore!”

Talking about the $1,500 Freezeout No-Limit Hold'em event, Benton arrived late on Day 3 with one of the biggest stacks in the field. But after the restart, his tournament felt like a roller coaster: “I was like, 'don’t get excited, there's gonna be so many swings today. Just roll with them, anything can happen, it’s anybody's day.’”

He eventually reached the final table, "his goal," with one of the shortest stacks of all. “I honestly preferred being in that situation because I'm not very well-studied in terms of poker, and I felt like my decisions were a little easier. Then I didn’t have to play much post-flop until it was heads-up.”

Thanks to his victory, Benton is thinking about staying a little bit longer. "I guess I'm gonna stick around and fire a few more events. And play the Main Event, you know, that was kind of the goal, and I'll get that opportunity now."

Day 3's Action

Out of 2,319 entrants, only 22 players remained after Day 2 and they came back on Day 3 hoping to win a WSOP bracelet. Alex Massman was one of these players, but his hopes of becoming world champion came to an end moments after the restart, as he ran his kings into Mukul Pahuja’s aces.

Kia Raisdana was next to make his way to the payout desk, eliminated with ace-three by Blake Bohn’s ace-eight. Jason Corbett was more fortunate, as he found a double-up a few minutes later.

Nicholas Verderamo had the shortest stack of all at the beginning of Day 3 but failed to achieve a last-to-first comeback after he was forced all-in from the big blind and lost to Haiyang Yang. He was followed by Scott Stewart, who couldn’t do much against Fahredin Mustafov’s aces. Finishing 19th, he won $15,730 and left the 18 remaining players to gather at the last two tables.

Jeffrey Kurtz didn’t stay long at his new seat because he saw his queens being cracked by Nick Maimone’s flopped straight. Then it was Ravee Sundara’s turn to be eliminated after he was in the lead in an all-in and call situation. Jacks were not enough for him against Balakrishna Patur, who hit a runner-runner flush.

After she lost a big pot when 19 players remained, Ebony Kenney had only two blinds left. But she managed to almost triple up and eventually reached 16th place,where her king-queen didn’t make it against ace-queen.

On the other table, Stan Yuk Lee lost a flip to finish 15th. But after his elimination, very little action happened for more than an hour until Bohn, with tens, lost against Pahuja’s kings. There were kings involved as well in Christopher Collier’s elimination. But this time, he was the one who had cowboys in his hands, while Evan Benton flopped a full house with eights.

The last woman standing, Ruiko Mamiya, saw her tournament come to an end in 12th place for $24,094. Then, one more elimination was needed to reach the unofficial final table. Unfortunately for him, Corbett became the one who took 11th placeafter he didn’t see that Haiyang Yang hit a straight on the river.

Once on the last table, Nicolas Vayssieres and then Andres Gonzalez doubled up. Fahredin Mustafov tried to imitate them but lost a flip against Gonzalez to bubble the final table.

After a short dinner break, Vayssieres became the first player to find himself at risk with ace-queen. As Yang had the same hand, they were supposed to split the pot, but Yang was lucky enough to hit a flush on the river to send Vayssieres to the rail. Another short stack was George Tomescu, but he was eliminated as well with ace-jack against Evan Benton’s ace-king.

Benton and Nick Maimone then both doubled up, one after the other. But it still wasn’t enough for Maimone to come back in the race because Patur hit a flush against him. Finishing seventh, Maimone won $64,202 while the six remaining players were sent on a short break.

But from six, the field was quickly reduced to four when Guofeng Wang, with sevens, ran into Gonzalez’s two pair, and then Mukul Pahuja failed to improve with king-queen against Patur's ace-nine. We even had the final three shortly after, because of Yang who shoved with jack-seven but found Patur’s kings in his way.

Now three-way, Patur and Gonzalez both had 25,000,000 while Benton had 7,000,000. But Benton managed to come back and even take the lead after he doubled through Gonzalez. Both players put all their chips in the middle once again a few hands later with two pair on each side on the river. But Benton, with ace-nine, had the best hand and extended his lead as the WSOP bracelet was placed on the table for heads-up.

Patur regained the chip lead during the last duel, but Benton came back and eventually saw his top pair hold after Patur moved all-in to win the tournament.

That concludes the coverage from Event #28, but be sure to follow PokerNews, as we will continue to provide live updates and coverage throughout the 2024 World Series of Poker.

• Tags WSOP24 Andres Gonzalez Blake Bohn Ebony Kenney Evan Benton Fahredin Mustafov Mukul Pahuja Nick Maimone Nicolas Vayssieres Ruiko Mamiya WSOP World Series of Poker
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