The $1,500 stud eight-or-better event on the 2016 World Series of Poker drew a field of 521 entrants, making a total prize pool of $703,350. Within the end, the title went to 33-year-old business owner David Prociak, who earned his first career gold bracelet and the $156,547 first-place prize.

The Kissimmee, Florida resident needed to overcome a last table that included notables equivalent to Brandon Shack-Harris (2nd), John Monnette (3rd), Jameson Painter (7th) and Calvin Anderson (8th).

This was the fifth cash for Shack-Harris this WSOP and third final table. He also won the $10,000 pot-limit Omaha event for $894,300. Monnette has had an identical run, cashing eight times with six top-nine finishes up to now. Both Painter and Anderson were making their second final-table appearance of the summer.

Prociak’s win is much more impressive when you think about the truth that he’s been playing poker for under a year.

“I just started playing poker last October," Prociak admitted. “That’s after I started playing in tournaments. I’ve been doing really well in tournaments lately. I USED TO BE fascinated with this earlier today, that there are such a large amount of great players available in the market who haven’t won a gold bracelet. And, here I USED TO BE able to win a bracelet – and now I’ve won a bracelet. It’s just amazing to me.”

Prociak is also in the midst of his rookie year, but he’s managed to rack up greater than $600,000 in live tournament earnings already. He finished second within the $3,500 buy-in Seminole Rock N’ Roll Poker Open last December for $330,912.

Other notables who made the cash included Bryan Devonshire (10th), Mark Gregorich (17th), Jimmy Fricke (19th), Andy Bloch (23rd), Daniel Negreanu (30th), Victor Ramdin (35th), Yuval Bronshtein (36th), Daniel Idema (38th), Chris Klodnicki (69th), Ben Yu (71st), Andrey Zaichenko (72nd), Naoya Kihara (73rd), Mike Leah (74th) and Allen Cunningham (77th).

Here is a glance on the payouts and POY points awarded on this event:

Finish	Player	Payout	POY Points
1	David Prociak	$156,547	840
2	Brandon Shack-Harris	$96,750	700
3	John Monnette	$66,601	560
4	Alexander Livingston	$46,652	420
5	Louis Russo	$33,263	350
6	Gaurav Kalro	$24,148	280
7	Jameson Painter	$17,855	210
8	Calvin Anderson	$13,452	140

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with an entire schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

Winner photo courtesy of the WSOP.

Read More... [Source: CardPlayer Poker News]