By finishing first and second in the WSOP Millionaire Maker the poker pros Jason DeWitt and Garrett Greer won both seven-figure cash prizes.
In third place finished Lisa Meredith, a Kindergarten teacher. She went home with $500,000.
Arkadiy ‘Kamsky’ Tsinis, the WSOP bracelet winner and backgammon champion, ended in sixth place and won $210,112.
A mix of amateurs and professionals ended up playing at the final table after 7,190 entered the event.
With a WSOP bracelt in his pocket already and lifetime earnings over $1.8 million, DeWitt was one of the most experiences poker players at the final table.
After his win DeWitt said the following: ‘I got a lot of cards’.
‘I think I had the best cards at the table so it makes it a lot easier’.
Runner-up= Garrett Greer
Racking up over $2.5 million in winnings before tonight only, Garrett Greer has been very active in the live tournament circuit for the past few years, and ended in second place yesterday.
His first-ever cash in 2011 was a second place, as well as two times in the World Poker Tour.
Greer said: ‘It further solidifies me as poker’s Mr. Runner-up.’
‘I’ve made a career out of coming second and I just came second in the best tournament to come second in’.
Greeg said to be fine with more runner-up finishes like this as this was his second seven-figure score.
‘If i rewind five years, I’m sitting in my aunt’s house in a wheelchair, I’ve got $200 in the bank, no prospects, no job and she’s telling me they’re getting divorced and selling the house and I’ve got to move out in four months’.
‘Somehow I was able to keep my head straight and see a light at the end of the tunnel and follow my dream’.
‘I just think that if you keep yourself straight and you don’t let the negativity in the world bog you down, it’s the only way you’ll have a chance’.
His network of friends and family have been a strong contributor to his success.
‘When I got injured and put in the hospital with a broken neck, I literally never spent a minute alone’.
‘I don’t know where I’d been if I didn’t have such a strong support network.’
‘Maybe I would have given up’.
$500,000 won by Kindergarten Teacher
A huge $500,000 drop to half-a-million was structured for the third place. Kindergarten teacher from Vancouver, Washington, Lisa Meredith finished in that third place and sounded very excited:
‘Im on cloud nine but it hasn’t even begun to sink in’.
‘It’s unbelievable’.
As she has dreamed of playing at the WSOP for a long time, a drame came true for Meredith who has been playing poker for six years now.
This april she went home with $10,733 after winning a $100 tournament with 529 other players. This time of the year she and her husband decided to come to Vegas together, and both player in the Millionaire Maker.
She outlasted over 7,000 players at her very first WSOP event.
Meredith said: ‘During some of the biggest hand I kept thinking about when my daughter came up to my mom and said, ‘My mommy’s going to win the tournament’.
‘I want to use the money wisely, pay off my house, take a nice vacation’, while sneaking a peak at her husband.
She decided with: ‘We’re savers’
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