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Back in the day, limit hold em was the only game in town and if you learned hold em, that was how you learned it. After Moneymaker's win in the World Series of Poker Main Event, that all changed and NLHE became the flavor of the month. Still there's a lot of people who love limit hold em and play it and the LHE events at the WSOP still attract a good showing even if it's not the crazy numbers that NLHE brings in. 367 players paid $2,500 to enter the six handed LHE event and by the time they reached the final six, there was only one big name remaining, but it was a pretty big name. Perhaps you've heard of him? Daniel Negreanu.

The final six and their starting seats and chip counts were as follows:

Seat 1: Barry Shulman – 385,000
Seat 2: Daniel Negreanu – 786,000
Seat 3: Kevin Hong – 89,000
Seat 4: Tommi Horkko – 460,000
Seat 5: Brock Parker – 606,000
Seat 6: Kyle Ray – 429,000

Kyle Ray came into the final table in comfortable chip position but ran into a brutal 45 minutes of cards where he flopped a set only to lose to a straight, lost a series of small pots, and then mucked in a large pot when Brock Parker turned over the nut straight. All this had brought him down to 20,000 in chips and it was only a matter of time before the rest would go in. Kevin Hong raised from middle position and Ray put the rest of his chips in from the small blind with 10-9 of hearts only to find out he was dominated by Hong's K-9. Kyle Ray did flop an open ender on a J-8-2 board but couldn't straighten out and was our first player eliminated. Kyle Ray finished in 6th place winning $31,966. Hong, who had entered the final table with just 89K in chips now had 365K. He would continue this good run and surge to the chip lead less than 30 minutes later.

Barry Shulman, an experienced poker player in his own right, lost two big pots to Brock Parker where his cards weren't shown to leave him on life support. Tommi Horkko would put him out of his misery with pocket 4's against Shulman's Q-10 of clubs. The board would come J-2-2-7-A to give the pot to Horkko. Barry Shulman finished in 5th place winning $43,201.

Daniel Negreanu then went on a significant heater winning two monster pots. The first came against Brock Parker when Negreanu four bet it pre-flop and bet the flop, turn, and river. Parker folded on the river to give Negreanu the pot. The second again came against Parker when Negreanu again four bet it pre-flop and following a similar pattern, bet the flop, turn, and river. This time Parker called on the river only to see that Negreanu had hit a full house on the river with his pocket jacks. Negreanu moved to nearly 1.8 million in chips with the other three players having 1.1 million in chips between the three of them. It seemed as if it was destiny for Negreanu to win another limit hold em bracelet.

Kevin Hong's good run came to an end when he put all his chips in the middle with K-Q with the queen of hearts against the pocket 5's of Brock Parker on a 9-5-2-J three heart board. Hong would need a heart or a ten to stay alive but the river was a fourth five giving Parker quads and the pot. Kevin Hong finished in 4th place winning $60,885.

Parker and Horkko would then confront each other in a massive pot with Parker getting the best of it with a flopped set of 7's against Horkko's unseen hand. Soon after, Horkko re-raised Negreanu pre-flop and Negreanu made the call. The flop came A-10-4 and Negreanu check called Horkko's bet. The turn was another 10 and the two went to betting until the rest of Horkko's chips were in the middle. Horkko had the lead on the flop with A-8 but Negreanu had passed him on the turn with his K-10. Horkko didn't get the ace he needed and Negreanu eliminated another player. Tommi Horkko finished in 3rd place winning $89,660.

Heads up play began with Negreanu holding a slight 1.65 to 1.1 million chip advantage over Parker. Negreanu would push that lead to slightly better than a 2:1 chip advantage when the tide, and tournament, would take a serious turn for the worse for him. With pocket queens, Negreanu would end up splitting the pot with Parker and his J-6 when the board came 7-6-4-5-3 to make a straight. Negreanu became visibly frustrated with the way things were turning and Parker continued to steam roll the seasoned veteran, hitting turn card after turn card... so much that Negreanu stated that he never wanted to see the turn card again.

The final hand saw Negreanu get the rest of his chips in on an A-10-6-4 board with K-10 for second pair. Unfortunately for Negreanu, Parker had A-J and Negreanu would need a king or ten to stay alive. The river was an 8 and the massive crowd that had gathered to watch Negreanu play sat there stunned and silent. Daniel Negreanu finished in 2nd place winning $138,280.

No one gave Brock Parker much of a chance at winning the tournament, especially when it got heads up and he was up against one of the best limit hold em players in the world in Daniel Negreanu. No one seemed to tell Parker this as he never cracked and instead seemed to be the player showing more composure at the end. Brock Parker finished in 1st place winning his first WSOP bracelet and $223,688. Congrats Brock!