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Justin Liberto 2015 World Series of Poker $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em

26-Year-Old American Poker Pro Wins First Bracelet and $640,711

by Erik Fast  |  Published: Jun 28, 2015

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From a field of 1,043 players Justin Liberto emerged victorious in the 2015 World Series of Poker $3,000 six-max no-limit hold’em, capturing his first gold bracelet and the $640,711 first-place prize.

The 26-year-old poker pro from Baltimore, MD also earned 1,440 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his second title and fifth final table score of the year, moving him into ninth place in the overall POY standings with 2,488 points and $857,908 earned to date.

Liberto now has $1,652,262 in lifetime live tournament earnings. His career really got jumpstarted in 2013 when he finished fourth in the inaugural Millionaire Maker event at the WSOP.

“When I came to the series a few years ago and finished 4th in the Millionaire Maker that allowed me to bypass some steps that most players would normally have to go through,” Liberto said. “I was careful not to overshoot my goals after that. Now, getting this win just makes things a lot easier.”

Seamus Cahill

The event was scheduled to run three days, but play was halted at around 2:00 AM after Liberto made it to heads-up play against Ireland’s Seamus Cahill. When they returned on day 4 Cahill held a 3-to-2 chip advantage, but both players were quite deep stacked and it seemed that the final battle could last a while. All of that changed when the two got involved in a gigantic preflop battle 18 hands into the day.

With blinds of 50,000 – 100,000 with an ante of 10,000. From the button Cahill raised to 200,000 and Liberto three-bet to 590,000. Cahill thought it over and four-bet to 1,475,000. Liberto came back over the top again, moving all-in for 7,480,000 total. Cahill called with the 8Spade Suit8Club Suit only to see that he was in big trouble against Liberto’s AHeart SuitADiamond Suit. The board ran out QSpade Suit4Diamond Suit2Club Suit10Spade Suit9Diamond Suit to earn Liberto the pot and a stranglehold on the match.

Cahill got his last six blinds on on the next hand with KHeart SuitDiamond Suit and ran into Liberto’s KClub SuitQClub Suit. Liberto flopped a queen and Cahill never even caught a whiff of a chance to draw out. With that he was sent to the rail as the runner up, earning $395,986 for his deep run.

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

Place Player Earnings (USD) POY Points
1 Justin Liberto $640,711 1440
2 Seamus Cahill $395,986 1200
3 Kiryl Radzivonau $251,168 960
4 Alexander Debus $164,863 720
5 Cornel Cimpan $111,475 600
6 Benjamin Heath $77,591 480

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2015 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

 
 
Tags: Poker Tournaments,   2015 WSOP,
 
 
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