The popular Seiver, who started the final table of eight in sixth, well back of Sands and under a million chips, clawed his way past an elite group of players over 200 total hands to earn his biggest career win
Sands, who had the overwhelming chip lead heading into the final table at 6.6 million, carried that momentum for much of the day but will have to be satisfied with a runner-up finish and $1.2m payday.
With the win, Seiver ups his career earnings past the $5m mark while Sands jumps past $4 million.
Seiver Runs Good, Shak Exits Early
Despite three players being eliminated in the first seven hands, the final table ended up a long grind to the finish with no weak spots in any seats.
Seiver benefited the most from those early hands as he found a full house with Aces to bust Dan Shak and take a big chunk of Greg Jensen’s stack to move up to 2.5 million in chips on just hand three. Shak, the runner-up in this event last year, took home a min-cash of $228,690.
Russian Vladimir Troyanovsky and hedge fund manager Jensen were quick to follow Shak out the door, busting in seventh and sixth respectively.
It took a little longer to bust Day 1 chip leader Phillip Gruissem, but he eventually succumbed to Seiver in fifth while an extended period of four-handed play ended with businessman Cary Katz hitting the rail in fourth.
Pro Nick Schulman, the player who started the day closest in chips to Sands at just over 2 million, rode his decent stack and some steady play to a third-place finish and a $744,140 payday.
Seiver, up to a 60-40 deficit by the time heads-up play began and thinking he had the edge, offered up a chip chop plus 5% at that point which Sands declined.
Sixty hands and a see-saw battle later, Seiver was the champ shortly after binking a nine on the flop for a set to top Sands' pocket 10s.
The official final eight and payouts:
1. Scott Seiver, $2,003,480 2. David "Doc" Sands, $1,259,320 3. Nick Schulman, $744,140 4. Cary Katz, $543,800 5. Philipp Gruissem, $400,700 6. Greg Jensen, $286,200 7. Vladimir Troyanovsky, $257,580 8. Dan Shak, $228,960Day 1a of the $10,000 Main Event also kicked off today with notables Darren Elias, Paul Volpe, Calvin Anderson, Ravi Raghavan and Yann Dion making their way up into the top 10.
Day 1b starts tomorrow at noon at the Atlantis Resort; follow the action live on the PokerStars blog.
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