Barnesville, Ohio, coming out on top to win a $115,850 top prize and his first gold bracelet.
Prior to the win, Kuhn had 19 WSOP-related cashes totaling $373,450. That included a WSOP Circuit gold ring win for $122,098 after taking down the $1,675 Main Event at Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City back in 2016.
After Angel “ChromeKing” Lopez bubbled the tournament in 331st place, the eliminations came at a rapid pace. Among the notables to cash were Matthew “Michmeister” Mich (298th – $602.20), Michael :miguelfiesta” Lech (235th – $677.48), Daniel “DNegs” Negreanu (210th – $677.48), Mark “wiscomurray” Kroon (171st – $$828.03), Ari “philivey” Engel (76th – $1,279.69), Joey “JOEYdaMUSH” Galazzo (41st – $2,408.83), Jackson “Actjacksn” White (15th – $5,796.25), and Edward “Eddiegood598” Espino (11th – $7,452.32).
Kuhn began the final table as the chip leader while Andrew “AndrewFreund” Freund was the short stack. Not surprisingly, the latter was the first to go followed not long after by poker pro Roland “prngls12” Israelashvili, the WSOP’s all-time leader in cashes.
Israelashvili, who had cashed in all three tournaments of the series, fell to Kuhn after getting it in with pocket tens and failing to get lucky against queens. With the cash, Israelashvili extended his WSOP-related cash lead to 228.
After Christopher “pokerher2014” Fuchs bowed out in seventh place, Richard “Doc33” Federico caught fire, first by eliminating Evan “Escott121181” Scott in sixth place – the result of holding the superior kicker after both players flopped top pair – a then he busted Max “ndirish50” Huster with ace-queen versus ace-jack.
Federico continued his streak by eliminating Theodore “klubot” Lui in fourth place with ace-seven against king-jack, and that saw him take the chip lead into three-handed play. Unfortunately, his momentum came to a sudden halt before he four-bet jammed with queen-jack suited only to run into the pocket kings of Kuhn. The cowboys held, Federico was sent packing, and Kuhn took a nearly 5:1 chip lead into heads-up play against Ronald “rlksaces” Keren.