Starting at a chip count disadvantage at a final table of six in
the Poker Stars.com Caribbean Adventure this week, a 22 year old math
graduate student from New Jersey with plenty of guts and audacity
trounced the competition to win the $1.5 million first prize.
Ryan Daut, and for that matter others at the table started the final
game of the tournament well behind another amateur player, Isaac Haxton,
who had $9.2 million in chips at his disposal. But the mathematics
whiz, who was initially unsure that he could meet the challenge with
his own $2.3 million chip count, showed both skill and courage to
come out tops.
"I'm really excited and all, but it's going to hit me later
tonight," Daut said after taking down the event at Atlantis
Resort and Casino in the Bahamas. "I'm just going to be
overjoyed."
In the final table action, Frank Rusnak and Jonathan Little busted
out first, earning $317 8873 and $ 247 000 respectively. Then Robert
Mizrachi and Robert Ford were sent to the rails for $550 980 and $409
703 leaving Daut and Haxton in the heads up with $4.92 million and
$13.9 million respectively in chips.
But it was the doughty Daut who prevailed, capping a great tournament
which initially saw 937 entrants post the $7 800 buy-in, generating
a total prizepool for the event of $7.3 million. For newcomer Haxton
there was a $861 789 second prize as consolation but much disappointment.
He had a dominating chip stack for most of the action, but it was
not enough to crack the main prize.