Card Player’s 2017 WSOP coverage is sponsored by BetOnline Poker.

Max Silver has won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet, defeating a field of 256 players to win the 2017 WSOP $3,000 six-max limit hold’em event. The fact that the British poker pro won an event at the series is hardly a surprise. Over his career he had garnered more than $3.1 million in live tournament earnings prior to this event. The surprise is that the tournament he won was a limit hold’em event, as almost all of his prior scores have come in no-limit hold’em and pot-limit Omaha. Silver himself took to social media repeatedly throughout the tournament, tweeting shortly after the bubble burst that he was, “… in the money and still have no idea what I’m doing.”

“I did what felt right at all times, and it seemed to work out,” Silver told WSOP reporters. “I don’t claim to be a limit expert by any means, but I played reasonably well and I’m pretty proud of it.”

Silver has made four previous final tables at the WSOP, and was relieved to come out on top finally.

“I can’t really describe it,” said Silver. “It’s always been a dream for me to win a bracelet. I’ve come third, sixth, ninth…whatever. It’s nice to get the win. I haven’t had a big win in a while.”

Silver essentially went wire-to-wire, chip leading at the end of day one and then through the rest of the event. He came into the final table day with approximately 25 percent of the chips in play with seven players remaining. By the time three were left he had over half of the chips.

Geowei Zhang knocked out Mickey Craft in third place ($69,789) to set up the final heads-up match. Silver had Zhang outchipped by a margin of just over 3-to-1, a lead that he extended even further by the time the final hand arose. With blinds of 30,000-60,000 Zhang limp-called a raise from Silver and the flop brought the J85. Silver bet, Zhang made it two-bets and Silver called. The turn was the 4 and Silver checked. Zhang bet and was all-in. Silver thought it over before electing to call with the K10. Zhang had the 83 for a pair and was ahead, or was until the K hit the river. With that Silver secured the title and Zhang was eliminated in second place, earning $172,645.

After it was all over Silver’s first call was to his wife, who is currently in Dublin, Ireland.

“She was so happy,” said Silver. “She’s currently six months pregnant, so she was crying — extra emotions! — but, to be fair to her, she would probably be crying anyway. I’m going to see her in about 12 hours. I’m flying to New York, she’s flying to New York, and we’re going to meet in the middle!”

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Place
Player
Earnings (USD)
POY Points

1
Max Silver
$172,645
612

2
Guowei Zhang
$106,694
510

3
MIckey Craft
$69,789
408

4
Ayman Qutami
$46,871
306

5
Lena Wang
$32,345
255

6
Georgios Kapalas
$22,952
204

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2017 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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