A 27-year old businessman from Kansas City, MO, with the unassuming name Grant Hinkle earns a WSOP bracelet the hard way by coming out on top in a 3,929 player event. This event will go down in books as the largest preliminary event and the fourth longest tournament in World Series of Poker history.

This is Hinkle’s first-ever cash at a major poker venue. Hinkle joined the $1,500 No-Limit Hold ‘Em Tournament which was the 2nd event in the 2008 World Series of Poker. Although Hinkle previously had no plans of entering another event, with $831,462 in prize money, he now plans on entering the main event. “I have always wanted to play the main event,” Hinkle enthused. “It’s just a dream come true.”

The marathon tournament took 53.5 hours to finish. Although the final table was supposed to be reached by the end of Day 2, play was stopped at 5:30 a.m. after a majority vote to stop play by the 18 players left standing. On the third day, it would take six more hours before a final table of nine could be reached.

Hinky sealed his victory in heads-up play against James Akenhead when he moved all-in on a stone-cold bluff with 10, 4 of diamonds pre-flop. Akenhead called with A,K and got killed when 10, 4, 10 hit the flop. To add insult to injury, Hinkle hits another 10 on the turn, giving him quads, leaving Akenhead with $520,219 for his second-place finish.

Poker legend Chris Ferguson came in a respectable third place for $388,297. Other notable finishers are Theo Tran who came in fourth for $327,148 and Perry Friedman who came in 11th for $52,021.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 3:04 pm and is filed under Online Poker, Poker Events, Poker Industry News, Poker Players, Poker Tournaments, Poker Winners, WSOP Bracelet Winners, World Series of Poker. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.