Jarvis' determination leads to WSOP win

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After finishing eighth in the 2010 WSOP main event, Matt Jarvis fully understood that a great chance at winning a bracelet had slipped away. Bracelet opportunities don't present themselves very often, but Jarvis kept his head up and was prepared and determined to capitalize on his next attempt. He returned to the Rio in Las Vegas for the 2011 WSOP with hopes of redemption. After nine events, all he had was a growing feeling of frustration. All that disappointment dissipated after his 10th event, Event 40 ($5,000 six-handed no-limit hold 'em), as it played out in ideal fashion and he emerged from an extremely tough field with his first career WSOP bracelet.

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PokerNews/WSOPMatt Jarvis won his first WSOP bracelet in the $5,000 no-limit hold 'em Event 40.

Jarvis earned $808,538 for first and became the fifth Canadian WSOP bracelet winner of 2011. He defeated Justin Filtz heads-up on Sunday when the two players had returned for an unexpected Day 4. The new WSOP hard-stop rule forced play to end on Day 3 with Jarvis holding a 3.7:1 chip lead and after five hands, Jarvis got his money in good with A-8 against Filtz's K-9 and would hold to become the champion.

"You dream of a moment like this from the first time you start playing poker," Jarvis said. "To win and event like this with as tough a field as this was, is an amazing feeling."

From the very start of the tournament, Jarvis was in control. He ended Day 1 with the chip lead thanks to a key two-outer on the river that eliminated Michael Mizrachi, his nemesis from the 2010 main event final table. He continued to keep his edge on Day 2 and finished the day with a third-place stack out of the 20 that remained. As Day 3 progressed, Jarvis surged to hold one of the top stacks to enter the final table with Filtz holding the chip lead. The two battled heads-up for more than four hours and, ultimately, Jarvis seized the chip lead and finished the job. Everything just seemed to fall into place for the 27-year-old professional poker player whose biggest live score in 2011 had previously been $3,000 (which came in a 27-player freeroll at Foxwoods).

"I think the November Nine put me on the map, but this secures me as a player," he said. "Especially in such a tough field, it shows I can do it again and that I'm a capable poker player. I do not know if I can say one is better than the other. I'm just really happy that one followed the other."

At age 24, Filtz now has second and third-place finishes in his WSOP career. He earned $499,855 and is just short of the $1 million milestone in career live tournament winnings.

Jarvis now joins Eric Buchman and Phil Ivey as the only November Niners (players who made the WSOP main event final table in 2008-2010) to have won a bracelet in the year following their final table appearance.

Another player who made a deep run in this event shared special ties with Jarvis, 2010 WSOP main event champion Jonathan Duhamel, of Boucherville, Quebec . The defending champion made a deep run in a $1,000 buy-in event to start off the Series and added his second cash in this event, finishing in 15th. Fellow Canadian Daniel Negreanu finished in 20th for his second cash of the Series.

For years many have claimed that the toughest fields at the WSOP can be found in the six-handed events. The short-handed tournaments draw not only the best live pros, but as it is a popular format online, the best online ones as well. The field of 732 may be considered the toughest one yet this Series. The 2011 edition also offered a 29 percent increase in attendance over 2010, which had 568 entires.

Other notable finishers include Dan O'Brien (seventh), Faraz Jaka (28th) and Phil Hellmuth (36th).

Below are the complete results of Event 40 at the 2011 World Series of Poker:

Event 40: Six-handed no-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $5,000
Entries: 507
Prize pool: $2,382,900
Players in the money: 48

1. Matt Jarvis ($808,538)
2. Justin Filtz ($499,855)
3. Wesley Pantling ($317,136)
4. Robert Merulla ($208,281)
5. Tore Lukashaugen ($141,125)
6. Matthew Vengrin ($98,567)
7. Dan O'Brien ($70,872)
8. Mauro Stivoli ($70,872)
9. Daniel Hirleman ($52,431)
10. Massimiliano Martinez ($52,431)
11. Kevin Iacofano ($39,874)
12. Hafiz Khan ($39,874)
13. Brendon Rubie ($31,315)
14. Russell Carson ($31,315)
15. Jonathan Duhamel ($31,315)
16. Grayson Ramage ($31,315)
17. Shane Schleger ($31,315)
18. Jude Ainsworth ($31,315)
19. Martins Adeniya ($24,942)
20. Daniel Negreanu ($24,942)
21. John Andress ($24,942)
22. Randy Dorfman ($24,942)
23. Taylor Paur ($24,942)
24. Haralabos Voulgaris ($24,942)
25. Primoz Cimerman ($20,504)
26. Jeremy Ausmus ($20,504)
27. Samad Rashid ($20,504)
28. Faraz Jaka ($20,504)
29. David Singer ($20,504)
30. Nicholas Maimone ($20,504)
31. Tommy Chen ($17,270)
32. Anthony Gregg ($17,270)
33. David Gent ($17,270)
34. Cary Katz ($17,270)
35. Seth Fischer ($17,270)
36. Phil Hellmuth ($17,270)
37. Balazs Botond ($14,896)
38. Isaac Haxton ($14,896)
39. Eugene Todd ($14,896)
40. Tyler Smith ($14,896)
41. Daniel Smith ($14,896)
42. Jason Koon ($14,896)
43. Manuel Bevand ($13,176)
44. Raphael Kroll ($13,176)
45. Peter Gilmore ($13,176)
46. Olivier Busquet ($13,176)
47. Jesse Cohen ($13,176)
48. Jacob Schindler ($13,176)
49. Shaun Deeb ($11,903)
50. Kevin Song ($11,903)
51. Kenneth Shelton ($11,903)
52. Ty Reiman ($11,903)
53. Joshua Bergman ($11,903)
54. Angel Guillen ($11,903)
55. Dobromir Nikov ($10,940)
56. Justin Young ($10,940)
57. Brent Hanks ($10,940)
58. Daniel Alaei ($10,940)
59. Dan Smith ($10,940)
60. Nicholas Harvalis ($10,940)
61. Wayne Boyd ($10,080)
62. Jason Mo ($10,080)
63. Joseph Serock ($10,080)
64. Ryan Olisar ($10,080)
65. David Fox ($10,080)
66. Lisa Hamilton ($10,080)
67. Tuan Le ($9,289)
68. Alan Sass ($9,289)
69. Charles Brizius ($9,289)
70. Valdemar Kwaysser ($9,289)
71. Grzegorz Derkowski ($9,289)
72. Nenad Medic ($9,289)
73. George Mcdonald ($9,289)
74. Michael Finstein ($9,289)
75. Michael Rocco ($9,289)
76. Daniel Reijmer ($9,289)
77. Daniel Tafur ($9,289)
78. Jason DeWitt ($9,289)

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Andrew Feldman

ESPN.com

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Andrew Feldman is ESPN.com's Poker Editor. He is the host of the Poker Edge Podcast and co-host of ESPN Inside Deal. Andrew has covered the poker industry for ESPN since 2004.