World Series of Poker Event 56: Matt Hawrilenko Takes Down Bracelet and $1 Million

The $5,000 Six Handed No Limit Hold'em event was the last event to be held at the World Series of Poker 2009 before the famous Main Event starts. Event number 56 saw 928 players register for their chance to win the last bracelet to be offered this summer. The next bracelet of the Series will not be awarded until November when the Main Event final table wraps up. Adding to the excitement of this event, there was a total prize pool of over $4.3 million, and the winner of the event was guaranteed to come out a millionaire.

Day 1 of this event had 928 entries, and in a fast paced battle only 160 players remained. There were a number of big names that joined this event including Erick Lindgren, Jamie Gold, Dutch Boyd, Dario Minieri, Justin Bonomo, Beth Shak, Vanessa Rousso, Jennifer Tilly, Marc Naalden, Bertrand 'ElkY' Grospellier, and Matt Graham just to name a few. Chris Ferguson made a deep showing in Day 1, but got knocked out just before the day's end. Rui Cao ended the day as the chip leader with an impressive 534,900 in chips.

Day 2 proved to be just as exciting as Day 1 with 160 players returning at the start of the day. Some notable players that returned for Day 2 included Bill Chen, Phil Laak, Phil Hellmuth, Mike Caro, Justin Bonomo, and Eli Elezra. By the end of the day, only sixteen players remained and would go on to play on the final day of play. Rory Mathews ended the day as the chip leader with 1.35 million, but Matt Hawrilenko, Peter Feldman, and Robert Kay were close behind in chips.

The remaining sixteen players returned Thursday at 1 p.m. to resume play of Event 56. Frank Caro was the first to be eliminated on Day 3, but he would not be the last. Even though Peter Feldman ended Day 2 as one of the chip leaders, he finished in 14th place after a series of unfortunate hands. The day continued to be hard on the chip leaders as Rory Mathews was taken out by Jonas Wexler and finished in 11th place. One by one, players continued to fall until the final table was reached at seven players.

Robert Kay, Matt Hawrilenko, Faraz Jaka, Sean Keeton, Matt Waxman, Jonas Wexler, and Josh Brikis were the last men standing at the final table. Robert Kay entered the final table as one of the short stacks, and wasn't able to double up. He was eliminated by Matt Hawrilenko in 7th place. Matthew Waxman had lost a few hands rendering him as the short stack. He was looking to make a move, and ran into Josh Brikis' pocket kings. He couldn't improve and was sent home in 6th. Jonas Wexler took home a 5th place finish, and Sean Keeton was knocked out in 4th place. Faraz Jaka took a 3rd place finish after his moves weren't working and went all in with Q Q against Matt Hawrilenko's A K. An ace hit the flop, and play was heads up.

It was a short heads up battle, as Matt Hawrilenko proved his aggression very early. The first three hands saw Hawrilenko take down the pots without a single show down. Josh Brikis started the heads up match as the short stack, and was being pushed around by Hawrilenko. On the fourth hand of the match, the two players got in a raise reraise situation, and Brikis moved all in. Hawrilenko quickly called with pocket jacks against Brikis' Ad Jd. The board was no help for Brikis, and he finished in 2nd place for $619,608. Hawrilenko finished as the champion of this event and will take home a nice cash prize of $1,003,218 and a world champion WSOP bracelet to go with it.

Full final table coverage can be found here.