Pierre Shum wins the World Series of Poker The Closer Event

Pierre Shum – Photo credit: WSOP / Rachel Kay Miller

Pierre Shum made the first tournament win of his career gold on July 17 in Las Vegas, Nevada when he won The Closer $1,500 no-limit hold’em event at World Series of Poker. She took home the grand prize worth $606,810 and the gold bracelet. Shum is a software engineer currently living in Chicago, Illinois and definitely has a bigger bankroll to play more tournaments in the future.

“I was born in Jamaica and my parents moved there for work. I’ve been playing poker for a long time, but mostly with friends. I started playing cash games more recently this year. I came here today to try and win the tournament. Money wasn’t even on my mind,” Shum told reporters after the win. He went on to say that he likes the social aspect of the game: “I started mostly because my friends played it. I’ve definitely made a lot of friends at the poker table. Where I play, it’s very social, so it’s fun. He concluded the interview by saying, “Well, if you like poker, try a tournament. You never know.”

The two-day tournament featured two initial flights that attracted a field of 3,531 entrants. This brought the total prize pool to $4,713,885, with the final 524 players pocketing $2,400. Notables who made a deep run to the final table included gold bracelet winner Lisa Hamilton (10th), five times WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Preston McEwen (11th) and top poker pro Chris Moorman (15th).

Day 2 saw the bottom 258 players return at noon to play down to the winner, and the final table was reached shortly after 20:30. Shum had gained control of the chip lead by that point in play to set up his run for the win. Shum scored his first knockout at the final table by knocking out tournament pro Peter Hengsakul in eighth place.

Peter Nigh pulled away with the chip lead as the table whittled down to five players, and then Shum was back in action when he eliminated Amirpasha Emami in fifth place. Gold bracelet winner Jack Duong fell to fourth place, and then Nigh took a commanding lead in the heads-up final when he eliminated Roongsak Griffeth in third place.

Shum had his work cut out with Nigh holding more than two-thirds of the chips left in play when the final game got underway, but he soon found four fours to retake the lead. It only took half an hour before the final hand took place around midnight. He almost moved all in preflop with A8 in the hole, and Shum called to cover while holding Q2. Q was dealt on the boardQ7j5, and Nigh was eliminated in second place, good for $376,420. It was the highest cash of Nigh’s career, and brings his tournament earnings up to $1.22 million.

Here is a look at the winnings awarded at the final table:

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