Carter Phillips Clinches WSOP Event #31

The World Series of Poker is past the half way point, with 61 bracelets up for grabs, #31 was awarded on June 18th in the $1,500 No-Limit Holdem event.

The event was huge, with 2,811 hopefuls lining up to play for the $3,794,850 prize pool. In the end however, after three grueling days, the WSOP would welcome back Carter Phillips to collect the second gold bracelet of his career. His first bracelet was won in the $1,500 No-Limit Six Handed Holdem event in 2010, but in many ways his second is more special because to Carter – he feels it verifies that he is a good poker player.

Carter’s latest saga started on Day 1, when several famous faces fell including Viktor Blom, Matt Affleck, David Williams, Melanie Weisner, Greg Raymer, Kara Scott, Andy Frankenberger, Ana Marquez and Faraz Jaka. Then on Day 2, out of the 297 players that cashed then crashed were Nick Binger, Angel Guillen, Lauren Kling, Sean Getzwiller, Ted Forrest, Bernard Lee and Erika Moutinho – but Carter was still in the running.

All eyes were on the youngest Main Event Champ in history, Joe Cada, as he went into Day 3 with the chip lead. Eventually the field dwindled down to the final table, which also included Cherish Andrews, who became the ninth lady to make it to a final table at the 2012 WSOP. While many wondered if Cada, who was the short stack going to the final table, could withstand to collect bracelet #2 or if it would be ladies day. Carter Phillips was there, waiting and stacking chips.

After four tough years on the road as a Pro and career earnings of over $2.6 million, Carter had burn-out. He took some time off this year and enrolled at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte for the fall. The time away from the tables seemed to help his game and his attitude about poker as Carter found himself in an intense heads-up battle with 2009 World Champ Cada who had a 2-1 chip lead.

There was a lot of three-betting, check-raising and non-stop aggression, then Cada moved all-in from the button with and Carter called with his . When Cada failed to connect, Carter collected the second WSOP gold bracelet of his career and $664,130 in cash - which should ensure he won’t need any student loans anytime soon.

Watch Carter’s interview below:

Final Table Results:

Read more about event #30 at PokerNews live-reporting.

And more about Carter at WSOP.com.