$599 467 For Ponzio In WSOP 25

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1 800 entrants in $2 000 No Limit Hold 'Em

One of the larger prize-pools in the World Series of Poker - that for the $2 000 No Limit Hold 'Em played over the weekend - was chased by an impressive 1 800 entrants.  Among them were Joe Tehan, Evelyn Ng, Greg 'FBT' Mueller, Erik Seidel, Lee Watkinson, Cliff Josephy, Mark Seif, Jennifer Tilly, Barry Greenstein, Eric Froehlich, Erick Lindgren, Michael 'The Grinder Mizrachi, T.J. Clotuier, Allen Cunningham and Freddy Deeb.

In swift moving action, the initial field was thinned to 130 players by the start of Day 2, and attrition continued at a rapid rate of around a player every 2 minutes until a final table of 9 was reached, all ready for Day 3 and the grand decider.

When the survivors took their seats at the final table it was Travis Rice in the chip lead on 1 284 000, chased by a determined Ken Eininger on 1 039 000.  At that stage the eventual winner, Ben Ponzio was the second lowest on chip count at 415 000. Once again, this event was the subject of an hour-delay webcast and it was therefore held before a restricted audience in the Bluff tent.

Ponzio took the very first hand with pocket nines, and went on to show Darryl Ronconi the way to the exit in position 9 on the ninth hand.  From an initially strong chip position, Ken Einiger was the surprise elimination 30 hands after that, falling in position 8 to some shrewd play from Evan Schwartz that resulted in Schwartz jumping into the lead on 2.17 million.

Schwartz took out both Adam Ross and Danny Noam next, shrinking the number of contestants to five. It took some time before the next player headed for the exit when David Hewitt put Travis Rice away at position 5 with the first of the really big money - $111 970.  Schwartz's chip count had been yo-yoing and it finally caught up with him at hand 94 when he went all-in against Justin Rollo - the board came up and Rollo's pocket sixes triumphed, leaving Schwartz heading for the rail and a 4th place paycheck of $165 008.

Three up, Rollo, Ponzio, and Hewitt were pretty much even on chips but parity did not last long as Ponzio and Hewitt hammered on Rollo, finishing him off around hand 115 when Hewitt's king kicker topped Rollo's queen when the board missed both players. As the number 3 finisher Rollo pocketed $244 566.

Heads up, Ponzio and Hewitt played on, with the former holding the lead by an almost 5 to 1 margin. It couldn't last for Hewitt and on hand 149 the game ended in favour of Ponzio, giving him the bracelet and $599 467 whilst the second place prize of $374 216 went to his opponent.