Craig McCorkell ships $3k Shootout

After the heroics of last year, the 2012 WSOP was starting to look like a washout for Team UK. But Craig McCorkell has finally grabbed a slice of gold for the Brits, seeing off a stacked final table to nab his first bracelet and almost $370k in the star-studded $3k Shootout!

Buoyed by a beer-swilling, shoe-bombing, ear-splitting rail, McCorkell battled past big names Antonio Esfandiari and fellow Brit and PokerPlayer regular Roberto Romanello to get Team UK up and running at the Rio, and the celebrations are probably still going.

For long periods, the 26-year-old never looked like banking the first prize, mainly because Esfandiairi held a staggering 4.1m of the 5.2m chips in play three-handed. But patience won out, and in dramatic hour, The Magician went from chip leader to busto, missing out on his first bracelet since 2004.

Romanello also came into the 10-handed final table with high hopes, needing a WSOP win to finish off a stunning Triple Crown. But it was McCorkell’s day, and after moving into heads-up with Jeremiah Fitzpatrick, he quickly turned a 3-1 chip deficit into a shiny gold bracelet.

After winning a monster hand with pocket eights against A-8, leaving Fitzpatrick all but out, McCorkell finished the job a few hands later, finally sealing the deal when his 8d-5d saw off Fitzpatrick’s 5h-2c on a 8h-Ac-Qc-Kh-As board.

‘ICM was important to play quite tight, quite solid, and try to get three-handed to give yourself a chance. I’m really confident in my heads up game, so when I got heads up, I felt really, really confident.’ McCorkell said afterwards.

Congrats to McCorkell and congats to the British rail for lending their support. As ever, they made the headlines at the Rio, with many of the UK’s best players cheering the Brits on… even if some of them did get thrown out before the end. Want to see what the rail got up to? Check out this hilarious video.

So the Brits are back and Team UK finally has a reason to celebrate. Fingers crossed it won’t be the last. Now, where did we leave our shoes?

Here’s how the $3k Shootout finished up:

1. Craig McCorkell  $368,593
2. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick   $228,261
3. Antonio Esfandiari  $151,613
4. Jonathan Lane  $112,512
5. Athanasios Polychronopoulos  $84,436
6. Alessandro Longobardi  $63,988
7. Roberto Romanello  $48,924
8. Thiago Nishijima  $37,707
9. Joe Tehan  $29,277
10. Sardor Gaziev  $22,899