Justin Pechie Lifts WSOP 2011 $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout Crown

American Justin Pechie emerged victorious from a 538-player field to secure a gold bracelet and $167,060 at the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event at the World Series of Poker (WSOP) 2011 in Las Vegas last night.

The Connecticut native dominated in the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino once the field had been cut down to just three players to eventually beat fellow American Dale Eberle in heads-up play.

Last night’s final table of 10 saw Pechie, Eberle, Mathieu Jacqmin, Team PokerStars Pro Eugene Katchalov, Jordan Rich, Stephen Bass, Adam Tyburski, Dom Denotaristefani, Chris Kwon and Ari Engel fight it out for the top prize.

While South Carolina’s Eberle battled back from just 50,000 to go head-to-head with Pechie, it was the latter who took total control to crush his opponent in the third-last hand and gain an 8 to 1 chip lead.

Eberle raised on the button, only for Pechie – in the big blind – to re-raise. Eberle called and the flop showed 8c-9h-5s. Pechie bet to get a call from Eberle.

The 2h came on the turn and once again Pechie bet out for Eberle to call. The Kc arrived on the river and Pechie bet. But Eberle raised this time, while Pechie re-raised, and Eberle called to show K-7 for a top pair on the river. However, that was not good enough as Pechie’s 9c-9s had made a set.

Following that hand, Pechie flopped trip queens while getting value on all three streets to leave Eberle with less than two big blinds – and the remainder of his chips went in on the final hand pre-flop.

Pechie showed Ks-4h, while Eberle held Qh-Jh. A Kh-Ad-3d flop arrived to give Pechie a healthy lead with only a 10 or running cards able to help Eberle. The 5d came on the turn, and Eberle required a non-diamond 10 river to survive. However, the 7s arrived to give Pechie the win.

Pechie appeared overwhelmed to be handed his first gold bracelet – and who can blame him – while Eberle left with $103,454 for his runner-up spot.

Top 10 placings and payouts from the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout event:

1. Justin Pechie (USA) – $167,060

2. Dale Eberle (USA) – $103,454

3. Mathieu Jacqmin (France) – $68,715

4. Eugene Katchalov (Ukraine) – $50,993

5. Jordan Rich (USA) – $38,268

6. Stephen Bass (USA) – $29,001

7. Adam Tyburski (USA) – $22,173

8. Dom Denotaristefani (USA) – $17,089

9. Christoph Kwon (USA) – $13,269

10. Ari (Alan) Engel (USA) – $10,378