Harrison, who works at Stillman College in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, blazed his way through a final table that included noted poker pro Mohsin Charania to win $432,411 and his first WSOP gold bracelet.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Harrison. “It’s all still kind of surreal to me.”
The 36 year old has been playing small-stakes poker for years but this was the first year he decided to play the biggest poker tournament series in the world.
“A lot of the guys on the circuit were trying to convince me to come out so I finally just built up a bankroll and decided to give it a shot,” he said.
The decision wasn’t immediately met with enthusiasm from his family.
“My wife is not a big fan of poker, to say the least,” he laughed.
“She’s happy now though. They’re always happy when you put $400,000 in the bank account.”
Pro Mohsin Charania Hits the Rail in Sixth Place
The final table got off to a fast start with Charania, arguably the most well-known player there, surprisingly busting in sixth place after failing to get much going.
The pace changed considerably when the table got down to heads-up between Harrison and U.K. pro Daniel Cascado.
It took over two hours for Harrison to finally land the knockout blow with suited ace-seven against Cascado’s king-ten.
Harrison flopped a pair of aces and that was more than enough to win the tournament.
Harrison outlasted a field of 1,731 players to win his first WSOP gold bracelet. Here’s a look at the complete final-table payouts:
1st: Corey Harrison - $432,411 2nd: Daniel Cascado - $267,452 3rd: Salvatore Dicarlo - $184,914 4th: Paul Spitzberg - $133,364 5th: Gregory Josifovski - $97,493 6th: Mohsin Charania - $72,208 7th: Zimnan Ziyard - $54,191 8th: Gareth Teatum - $41,198 9th: Robert Brewer - $31,711Visit www.pokerlistings.com