As the field of Event 15, the $5,000, no-limit, hold 'em event, began to shrink, so did the average age. After 655 players entered, the final table was left without experience. Other than David Pham, who finished in 10th place, youth dominated the final table, and the focus was on the youngest player, Issac Baron. Making his World Series of Poker debut this year, Baron was the one to watch, and reaching his first final table in just under two weeks, he didn't disappoint.
While all the hype was surrounding Baron, Brian Lemke slowly made his way through the final table to win his first WSOP bracelet. The table's senior citizen, at 32, Lemke overcame a massive chip deficit heads-up to beat Fabian Quoss and win the tournament. Lemke is the cousin of Justin Shronk, a great friend to much of the poker industry who recently passed away. Wearing his "Got Shronk" t-shirt, Lemke was able to pull through.
"You know why I won this, don't you?" Lemke said to Joe Sebok who wrote about the experience in his blog. "You know."
Baron finished in seventh place, earning $88,784.
Also making the final table were two other notables, Thomas Keller and Lika Gerasimova. Keller, who finished in third place, won his first bracelet in this event in 2004, and came very close to a repeat performance this year in his fifth WSOP cash.
Gerasimova isn't a household name, but she is the girlfriend of two-time main event final tablist Ivan Demidov. This was her second major final table of the year, first in the WSOP. She finished fifth in this tournament, and fourth at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure high-rollers event.
Other notable finishers include David Benefield (14th), Kathy Liebert (20th) and Erik Seidel (22nd).
Below are the complete results of Event 15:
Event 15: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $5,000
Entries: 655
Prize pool: $3,078,500
Players in the money: 63
1. Brian Lemke ($692,658)
2. Fabian Quoss ($427,912)
3. Thomas Keller ($280,852)
4. Mike Sowers ($194,931)
5. Liya Gerasimova ($142,688)
6. Danny Illingworth ($109,872)
7. Isaac Baron ($88,784)
8. Billy Kopp ($75,115)
9. Christian Iacobellis ($66,403)
10. David Pham ($47,501)
11. Dave Inselberg ($47,501)
12. Olivier Busquet ($47,501)
13. Matthias Neu ($35,341)
14. David Benefield ($35,341)
15. Lars Bonding ($35,341)
16. Nicholas Grippo ($27,029)
17. Tom Braband ($27,029)
18. Faraz Jaka ($27,029)
19. Steven Goosen ($21,026)
20. Kathy Liebert ($21,026)
21. Alexabder Turyansky ($21,026)
22. Erik Seidel ($21,026)
23. Benjamin Tollerene ($21,026)
24. David Fox ($21,026)
25. Darryll Fish ($21,026)
26. Jerry Atkins ($21,026)
27. Steve Verrett ($21,026)
28. Robert Leppo ($17,085)
29. Nenad Medic ($17,085)
30. Cody Slaubaugh ($17,085)
31. Hasan Habib ($17,085)
32. Karga Holt ($17,085)
33. Howard Boyd ($17,085)
34. Ludovic Lacay ($17,085)
35. Jesse Rios ($17,085)
36. Jared Ingles ($17,085)
37. Thomas Dehn ($14,191)
38. Luke Staudenmaier ($14,191)
39. Kevin Boudreau ($14,191)
40. Steven Merrifield ($14,191)
41. Gary Lent ($14,191)
42. David Peters ($14,191)
43. Scott Seiver ($14,191)
44. Anthony Cousineau ($14,191)
45. Jason Somerville ($14,191)
46. Brent Roberts ($11,944)
47. John Strzemp ($11,944)
48. Konstantin Bucherl ($11,944)
49. Scott Desveaux ($11,944)
50. Neil Stewart ($11,944)
51. Mats Gavatin ($11,944)
52. Domen Pinteric ($11,944)
53. Amit Makhija ($11,944)
54. Darren Grant ($11,944)
55. Malte Stothmann ($10,159)
56. Anh Van Nguyen ($10,159)
57. Edward Brogdon ($10,159)
58. Ryan Karp ($10,159)
59. Kwang Lee ($10,159)
60. Moshin Charania ($10,159)
61. Calixto Clemenceau ($10,159)
62. Jason Dewitt ($10,159)
63. Dan Heimiller ($10,159)