At one stage McLean Karr was struggling in 27^th place out of 27 competitors but early on Saturday morning he was walking away with first prize having held off the challenge of Phil Hellmuth and Andy Seth in a thrilling final table.

Karr once a US Air Force Academy Applied Maths and Statistics graduate who entered the tournament through a $1,200 satellite survived the short stack ordeal to celebrate the second happiest moment of his life:

“It’s a close call, I think when I finally graduated from the Air Force Academy and the Thunderbirds came rolling over and we threw our hats in the air and said, “You can’t take this diploma back now, I made it,” that was pretty close and a bigger sigh of relief.”

“Here I was still going to be a big winner even if I came second. It was still going to be my biggest cash ever, but obviously this is really cool. I can’t even express to you how happy I am. I don’t even think I’ll realize for another few days.”

Phil Hellmuth left in six place, the fourth time he has made a WPT final time and the fourth time he has wlaked away empty handed. He did not take the loss lightly when Andy Seth found an ace on the river to send him packing.  Hellmuth was left reeling in anguish on the floor of the Bay 101 unable to talk to interviewers for several minutes.

After Hellmuth had finally gone, Matt Keikoan was next to leave as Andy Seth took out another player before Karr himself removed Hasan Habib from the running with a turned full house. Dan O’Brien was next to leave as Karr’s sevens held up against jack-deuce.

Karr took a 2:1 chip lead into Heads Up and was able to celebrate when his eights held up against Seth’s fours.

McLean Karr will still be celebrating no doubt after his biggest cash ever taking home $878,500.