Matt Hawrilenko Wins Event 56 of 2009 WSOP

Poker News - July 3, 2009 - Written by Bonnie

Matt Hawrilenko certainly has something to celebrate after being named the champion of event 56, the No Limit Hold em' Six Handed tournament. This three day tournament collected a $5000 buy in from 928 poker players from around the world. Among those players was the very skilled Hawrilenko who upon completion of the tournament, would walk away with one of the three million dollar cash prizes that were awarded during the 2009 World Series of Poker. Hawrilenko's previous career wins include 12 cash wins through WSOP events, but no doubt that lucky number 13 was the one he had been waiting for. This win earned Hawrilenko a payday of $1,003,163 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. Although this win was no easy task, it was by far the biggest win of his career so far.

This tournament consisted of some of the best poker players around but proved to be a challenge for players of every poker level. On day one we saw a quick exit from well known players such as Chris Ferguson, Allen Cunningham, and Daniel Negreanu. Day two also came and went for players such as Shaun Deeb,Shannon Shorr and Phil Hellmuth which left 16 players to continue on to the final day. Hawrilenko made it to the final table of 6 sitting in 2nd in chip position. Joining Hawrilenko at the final table were online poker players Faraz Jaka and Mathew Waxman. Hawrilenko manages to hold his chip position until the last four players are seated at the final table. f those final four, Faraz Jaka and Sean Keeton did not stick around long, leaving Matt Hawrilenko and Josh Brikis.

Hawrilenko came into the head up match with nearly a 2-1 chip lead over Brikis. It was only 4 hands in to the final match up, that Hawrilenko would end the match by taking all of Brikis's chips. This was a big win for Hawrilenko as he will walk away with over a million dollars. Not bad for a few days of enjoyable work.