WSOP Event 53: Ram Vaswani Claims Victory

The World Series of Poker Event #53, $1,500 Limit Hold'Em Shootout, started with a field of 720 entrants. By day two, 47 players were left to compete on 8 tables. By the end of the tournament, Ram Vaswani had played three final tables, won his first WSOP Bracelet and Corum watch, along with a prize of $217,438.

Shootout tournaments differ from normal tournaments because players do not shift from one table to another to keep full tables. Players remain at their table until they are the last man standing. Each table winner then moves to a new table of other winners until a final champion is declared.
Another difference is the player's stack beginning at a new table. Each round sees every player holding the same amount of chips to start, as they have won every chip at the previous table.

Eight players started the final $4,000/$8,000 Limit table, each holding 300,000 chips. Seating arrangements were as follows:
Seat 1 - Sondre Sagstuen
Seat 2 - David Baker
Seat 3 - Ishak Noyan
Seat 4 - Anh Van Nguyen
Seat 5 - Rayvenia Puckett
Seat 6 - Andrew Ward
Seat 7 - David Mosca
Seat 8 - Ram Vaswani

After 4 hours into the final, Puckett fell first at 8th place with $9,582.
Baker went next, losing his fourth all-in, to end at 7th place with $12,776. After midnight, Sagstuen left the table at 6th place with $19,656. Shortly after, Noyan left in 5th with $31,450, followed by Mosca in 4th with $58,968. Nguyen didn't last much longer, taking 3rd place and $83, 538.

Vaswani went into heads up play with Ward slightly under-stacked, but quickly to the lead with aggressive play, at one point up 10:1 over Ward.
It wasn't long after that Vaswani took the final hand with a nut flush over Ward's pair of Aces. Ward took 2nd place and a respectable $124,816 as Vaswani claimed his first WSOP Bracelet, Corum watch and $217,438 in winnings.