Say hello to three new bracelet winners! It took four days, but Frank Maggio won the Seniors event. Maggio faded a record-setting crowd of 4,389 seniors to win his first bracelet and $617K in cash. In Event #33 $1,5000 Donkament, German pro Christopher Frank prevailed for a $385K score and the first victory for Germany this summer. Also, Ben Yu outlasted a stacked final table to win Event #34 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship. Yu shipped his second-career bracelet by beating Shaun Deeb heads-up for the win.
Manic Monday. Three events. Three bracelets, including the Seniors event that needed an extended day to accommodate the record-setting crowd. The prize pool was almost $5 million! That's redonkulous. First place paid out $617K! You can't win that playing BINGO, grandson! Frank Maggio was the last senior standing in Event #$31 $1K NL Seniors Championship.
Christopher Frank, a young pro from Germany, was the last player standing in Event #33 $1,500 NL. The Donkslayer won $384,833 for outlasting 1,698 runners. Yup, chalk up another win for the Germans.
Ben Yu added a second bracelet to his collection. Yu denied Shaun Deeb the bracelet in Event #34 $10K Triple Draw. Completely stacked field and treacherous final table -- Nick Schulman, Buck21, SirWatts. Yu whooped all of them for the bling and $233K in cash. Oh and he denied Mike the Mouth a shot a bracelet for the proverbial cherry on top of the sundae.
Event #31 $1,000 SENIORS NL Championship - Final Results

This year's Seniors event attracted a record-setting crowd of nearly 5.4K runners. In total the prize pool passed $4.85M. The event was so big that it needed a fourth day to accommodate the three-day affair.
Bracelet winner and Vegas-based pro Dan Heimiller final tabled the Seniors event, but he was the first player out in ninth place.
Frank Maggio defeated Bill Murray (not the actor from Caddyshack, Noon!) heads-up for the win and $617K in cash. Nice score, old man!
Rock-and-roll photog/pro David Plastik went super deep with a 54th place finish.
Other notable seniors who went deep in this event... Blair Rodman, Kevin O'Donnell, Greg Raymer, Dan Schmiech, Per Hildebrand, Mark Kroon, Cliff Josephy, Farzad Bonyadi, Ralph Perry, Barny Boatman, Donnacha O'Dea, and Joe Awda.
2017 WSOP - Event #31 $1,000 SENIORS NL Championship
Entrants: 5,389
Prize Pool: $4,850,100
Payouts: 807
Final Table Results:
1. Frank Maggio (USA) $617,303
2. Bill Murray (USA) $381,233
3. Dieter Dechant (USA) $281,691
4. Mark Lillge (USA) $209,715
5. Anthony Licastro (USA) $157,321
6. Gina Bacon (USA) $118,923
7. Lewis LeClair (USA) $90,594
8. Paul Spitzberg (USA) $69,552
9. Dan Heimiller (USA) $53,817
Event #33 $1,500 NL - Final Results

When I say, "DONK!".... then you say, "DONKAMENT!"
DONK!
DONKAMENT!
DONK!
DONKAMENT!
The Italian Pirate went deep, but he eventually walked the plant in eighth place. Max Pescatori was one of the notables at the final table of Event #33 Donkament. Pratyush Buddiga emerged as the big stack late in the event, but he settled on a fourth place finish. Mike Gags busted first at the final table in ninth place.
Young German pro Christopher Frank picked off Ryan Leng during their heads-up bout. Frank sipped $385K and Leng settled on a consolation gift worth $238K. That's waaaaay better than a set of steak knives.
Notables who cashed in this donkament included... Roy Henson, Jeff Gross, Melissa Gilbert, Andrew Brokos, Aron Dermer, Allen Cunningham, Philip Hu, David The Dragon, Alexis Fleur, James Murphy, Hubert Rimbaud, Nancy Whang, Nam Le, Jon Friedberg, Tyler Pope, Griffin Benger, Niall Farrell, Aaron Massey and Patrick Mahoney.
2017 WSOP - Event #33 $1,500 NL
Entrants: 1,698
Prize Pool: $2,292,300
Payouts: 258
Final Table Results:
1. Christopher Frank (Germany) $384,833
2. Ryan Leng (USA) $237,776
3. Arkadiy Tsinis (USA) $171,208
4. Pratyush Buddiga (USA) $124,615
5. Grant Denison (USA) $91,699
6. Georgios Sotiropoulos (Greece) $68,226
7. Noah Vaillancourt (Canada) $51,332
8. Max Pescatori (Italy) $39,060
9. Michael Gagliano (USA) $30,063
Event #34 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship - Final Results

One of the smart kids won! Stacked final table. And Stanford grad Ben Yu outlasted them all. This event attracted 80 total runners for the $10K Triple Draw Championship. First place paid out nearly $233K.
Yu defeated Shaun Deeb heads-up for the win. Deeb got wafflecrushed by Yu. Nick Shulman busted in third place. Also at the final table... SirWatts, Shawn Buchanan, and Mile Matusow. Yes, Mike the Mouth had another good run, but he got shutdown in sixth place when he became the first player to exit the final table.
In his post-victory interview, Yu told WSOP.com, "It was actually a very tough final table. I think the media overblows it. Even a lot of the name players, the ones you've seen have some success, aren't always that great. But this final table and this field was actually really tough. You have Nick Schulman, who is one of the end bosses of Bobby's Room, very good and winning at everything he plays. Good at everything. You have Shaun Deeb, one of the few players who can get away with that loose because of how great he is post-flop. Mike Watson... I don't look up to many people in poker, but he is definitely one of them. Mike Watson is ahead of me for sure. Shawn Buchanan is also very tough, very good at everything he plays."
Aussie Rob Campbell bubbled off the final table in seventh place. Anthony Zinno went deep once again, but he finished in eighth place. Also cashing... Brian Tate, Mark Gregorich, Adam Owen, and Russia's Konstantin Puchkov.
Ben Yu cashed in almost 50 events in his career. The LA-based pro and Standford grad now has 6 final tables on his WSOP resume. And with two wins, he's batting .333 for wins per final table. That's not too bad.
2017 WSOP - Event #34 $10,000 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw Championship
Entrants: 80
Prize Pool: $752,000
Payouts: 12
Final Table Results:
1. Ben Yu (USA) $232,738
2. Shaun Deeb (USA) $143,842
3. Nick Schulman (USA) $98,337
4. Mike Watson (Canada) $68,601
5. Shawn Buchanan (Canada) $48,854
6. Mike Matusow (USA) $35,532