$3,000 Limit Hold'em (6-Handed) goes to Vampan

The final day of Event #25: $3,000 Limit Hold'em (6-Handed) has concluded at the 2024 World Series of Poker at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. After the dust has settled, Las Vegas local Daniel Vampan has emerged victorious after a dominant final table performance to take home $148,635 and his first gold bracelet.

The event attracted 248 total entrants to generate a total prize pool of $662,160. Only 10 of those initial entrants found a bag for Day 3 to battle it out for the top prize.

Vampan recalls a pivotal moment from Day 2 that helped boost him to victory:

"I had 2,000 chips, at 3,000/5,000 limits, and I tripled up to 6,000, then I had like six-nine off in the big [blind], and it came ten-nine-five turn nine and I beat queen-ten… it was at that moment that I was like, oh, I'm going to win this tournament… I just had this weird feeling, like I just knew it was going to happen…"

Although his biggest cash according to The Hendon Mob is $345,000 due to a 24th-place finish in the 2023 WSOP Main Event, the 35-year-old California native is mostly a limit cash game player.

"Yeah, my dad is actually an ex-professional limit hold'em player so you know, I would sneak into the Commerce and the Bike when I was like 18/19 so I've been playing limit for a very long time."

Vampan does admit that he hasn't been able to play as much as he used to, however, as he has been busy working on a business he and his friend are developing in the agricultural sector, with a launch date still TBD.

Ten players took their seats today for Day 3 (four of them named Daniel), but it wasn't very long before Daniel Idema hit the rail in tenth ($11,157), followed by Daniel Budovsky in ninth ($13,276). Then Yi 'Kat' Klassen (8th-$13,276) and Daniel Maczuga (7th-$17,704) busted almost simultaneously at separate tables to bring the remaining six to the official final table.

First to exit after that was Frank Yakubson who got it all in with pocket sixes on the turn, but Vampan had made a pair of sevens to send him home after the river provided no help.

Next to go was legend Roland Israelashvili who just made his 501st WSOP cash but fell just short of a bracelet when he tangled with Nick Caltabiano. Both players flopped a pair of threes and got it all in, but Roland's six-kicker was no good against the kin-kicker of Caltabiano and he was sent to the payout desk in fifth place.

After that, there was a lot of chip-trading going on and at one point, three of the four players were pretty much even, with Robert Wells ahead by a good margin. After another level or so, it was Lucas Wagner who had dwindled to become a short stack and got it all in preflop against Caltabiano and Vampan. After checking through the flop, Caltabiano bet Vampan out on the turn and tabled a pair of queens against the seven-five suited of Wagner. A five appeared on the river but it was too little too late and Wagner was sent out in fourth place.

A three-handed battle then ensued as each player took turns holding the chip lead, but before long, it was Vampan who started running away with the lead after making some big key hands. Caltabiano then became very short and got it all in preflop against Wells who covered. Caltabiano's queen-ten had Wells' jack-ten dominated, but Wells ended up making a straight on the turn and the blank river sent Caltabiano out as the third-place finisher.

Wells and Vampan then went into heads-up play with a huge chip disparity, as Vampan held a 6:1 chip lead. As everyone knows, anything can happen heads-up, but that was not the case as both players got it all in on the turn with a pair and straight draw, but the river bricked out and Vampan's superior pair secured him the victory and left Wells as the event's runner-up.

This got a huge reaction from Vampan's rail, who had been present since the late Levels of Day 2 yesterday, and they all swarmed the table to celebrate their friend's first bracelet, chanting "Hardware! Hardware!"

Final Table Results
1 Daniel Vampan United States $148,635
2 Robert Wells United Kingdom $99,578
3 Nick Caltabiano United States $67,919
4 Lucas Wagner United States $47,179
5 Roland Israelashvili United States $33,387
6 Frank Yakubson United States $24,078