The Casino Employees title was won by aspiring rapper Eric Narciso, nicknamed QuietLike. The event was the second biggest of its kind, falling slightly behind on last year’s number, but the 1,038 competitors still contributed to a creditable prize fund, with Narciso receiving $104,701 for first place.

The record field for a non-championship event was broken the minute Event #3 kicked off on June 2^nd, with 2,998 players paying up the $1,500 buy-in for a shot at a bit of WSOP bling.

From the off it was Alex Jacob who made all the running, controlling the tournament from the opening day right through until the final table. Jacob’s dominance continued in front of the cameras, and with 6 players left he was the dominant chip leader with nearly four times as many chips as his nearest rival.

From there however things began to fall apart for Jacob as his path crossed with the rising star of Ciaran O’Leary. O’Leary had started as one of the table’s short-stacks, and a cold run of cards saw him fold every one of the first 19 hands. O’Leary finally got involved when he found a pair of pocket nines, but it looked like it would be the only hand he’d play at his final table when Paul Evans tabled pocket kings. After pleading with the dealer for mercy his man obliged, peeling off a nine on the turn to send O’Leary and his supporters into ecstasy.

Even after that win O’Leary was still propping up the bottom of the leaderboard with only $700,000 chips compared to Jacob’s $4 million, but the course of change was now set. Soon O’Leary clashed with Paul Evan’s once more, but this time it was O’Leary who held pocket kings, and this time they held up to propel O’Leary’s stack to around $1.5 million. Meanwhile Alex Jacob handed over roughly $700,000 from his stack to Jeff Yoak, before doubling up his Irish born nemesis when his pocket nines failed to improve against O’Leary’s pocket queens.

O’Leary took the chip lead a while later when he called Craig Crivello’s all-in with A-8o. Crivello grimaced as he table A-7o, and O’Leary’s cheering section went mad as the dealer peeled off an eight on the flop to spell the end of Crivello’s time at this final table. O’Leary had a taste for the knock-out now, and he dealt for Jeff Yoak next when he called Yoak’s all-in and tabled A-6o. Yoak flipped over the K-Qo but an ace on the flop was enough to send him to the rail in fourth.

Next it was Alex Jacob’s turn to square up with “The Big C”, as the tournament director had dubbed Ciaran O’Leary. In one of the most exciting hands at the final table O’Leary limped and Jacob checked his option. O’Leary checked the flop in the dark and Jacob fired out $150,000 when it came Ac-4c-2s. The Big C then raised to $600,000 and Jacob called to see the Ks fall on the turn. O’Leary then moved all his chips into the middle to put Jacob to a decision for his tournament life.

Jacob was clearly frustrated by the way things had fallen apart for him at this final table, but he took his time and weighed up his options. Eventually he called, and in a clear indication that he thought O’Leary was either bluffing or on a draw, flipped up a weak looking 9h-4h. To his visible disgust though, O’Leary tabled pocket sevens, and the six of hearts on the river meant Jacob was out in third place.

The heads-up match between O’Leary and Paul Evans lasted just two hands. With a $7.5 million to $1.5 million chip lead to overcome Evans was always going to have to gamble, and he did so with 6-3 on a K-6-2 flop. Unfortunately for him O’Leary was holding K-t, and a king on the turn meant Evans was drawing dead on the river. A delighted O’Leary celebrated with his supporters, of whom he said: “It’s great to have the guys in the background; they were very, very supportive.”

Payouts were as follows:

1^st – Ciaran O’Leary - $727,012

2^nd – Paul Evans - $450,150

3^rd – Alex Jacob - $282,367

4^th – Jeffrey Yoak - $184,152

5^th – Craig Crivello - $128,907

6^th – Andreas Krause - $94,122

7^th – Thad Smith - $73,661

8^th – Bart Hanson - $55,246

9^th – Matthew Vengrin - $43,378