First time bracelet winner, James Van Alstyne, overcame the field during the 12-hour Day 3 of Event #31 ($1,500 HORSE) to win $247,033. This was his sixth final table at the World Series of Poker – second this year.
Van Alstyne held a major chip lead of 2.45Million to Tad Jurgens’ 980K going into heads up poker. He expectedly took care of business. The win puts JVA into a third place tie with Brock Parker for WSOP Player of the Year.
As a well-rounded player, Van Alstyne has been playing solid poker. As you’ll remember, he finished second in the $3,000 buy in of HORSE. Will this translate into success in the $50,000? Only time will tell.
Gus Hansen is in the lead today. I think he is going to win. He is writing a blog on a danish news site called EkstraBladet and he seems confident.