Editor's note: A replay of this final table can be found on demand at ESPN3.com.
The saying fits once again: "First the ring, then the bracelet." The WSOP had coined that phrase when it first kicked off the domestic tour, and time after time, it just keeps on coming to fruition. In the $1,500 no-limit hold 'em Event 14, it was Jonathan Taylor's turn to prove them right. Taylor, a 31-year-old professional poker player from Alabama, went on a run in 2012 that featured a victory in the Circuit main event at The Lodge in Colorado, two other titles and a total of seven cashes. His experience served him well and surrounded by the Circuit grinders on his rail in Vegas, he earned his first bracelet and $454,424.
"Coming into this event, all I pretty much wanted to do was to cash," Taylor said to the WSOP. "I just wanted to say I had my first WSOP breakthrough. This is everybody's dream. It's no fair that I got it right off the bat. I am very humbled by this. I don't feel I deserve it, but we're going to take it."
After playing football for the University of Alabama, Taylor turned to accounting and kept poker on the back burner. After four years, he tired of his profession and focused on the game he enjoyed. It turns out that making the change was a pretty good decision after all. He felt that playing the Circuit was a good way to dedicate his efforts and found quick success. The WSOP approached, he figured he'd play a busy schedule, and after seven failed attempts, he etched his name into the record books.
"I'm extremely competitive," he said. "Early in my poker career, that was actually to my detriment. I wanted to win every single time, every pot. I grew up as an athlete and was always competing. That's why you see so many athletes going into poker when they are done playing. It's a good way to fuel the competition."
Taylor started the final table as the chip leader and would trade the top spot with Blake Bohn often as nine was reduced to seven. Hiren "hustla16" Patel was making the most of his final table debut and, with five left, had a small edge on Bohn. That edge vanished in an instant as Hunter Frey caught a river straight against Patel, and after Tommy Vu ran a flopped top two into Taylor's middle set to exit in fifth, Patel followed him out the door in fourth.
With more than half the chips in play to start three-handed, Taylor continued to pressure his opponents. Frey decided that he wouldn't take much more of Taylor's aggression, and picked the wrong time to move all-in as Taylor picked up a huge hand (Q-Q overJ-10) to knock him out in third.
Heads-up play began with Blake Bohn and Taylor trading pots, but Taylor's aggression with his chip lead was simply too much. Bohn was ahead when the chips were in the middle on the final hand, but Taylor made a better pair (K-9 over A-5) to earn the victory.
Other notable finishers include Erick Lindgren (19th), Paul Wasicka (37th), Brent Hanks (47th) and Frank Kassela (49th).
Below are the complete results of Event 14 at the 2013 World Series of Poker:
Event 14: No-limit hold 'em
Buy-in: $1,500
Entries: 1,819
Prize pool: $2,455,650
Players in the money: 198
1. Jonathan Taylor ($454,424)
2. Blake Bohn ($281,049)
3. Hunter Frey ($194,315)
4. Hiren Patel ($140,143)
5. Tuan Vu ($102,449)
6. Patrick Kubat ($75,879)
7. Jed Hoffman ($56,946)
8. Dan Gannon ($43,293)
9. Joseph Pergola ($33,323)
10. Russell Crane ($25,980)
11. Daniel Paska ($25,980)
12. Morgan Machina ($25,980)
13. Chris Hunichen ($20,504)
14. Benjamin Dobson ($20,504)
15. Robert Layne ($20,504)
16. Owen Crowe ($16,379)
17. Adam Shuman ($16,379)
18. Michael Gagliano ($16,379)
19. Erick Lindgren ($13,260)
20. Simon Lam ($13,260)
21. Alan Keating ($13,260)
22. Janette Zawacki ($13,260)
23. Greg Jennings ($13,260)
24. Darrin Oremba ($13,260)
25. John Compton ($13,260)
26. Grant Curnow ($13,260)
27. Damien Lhommeau ($13,260)
28. Christopher Rauscher ($10,853)
29. Maurice Hawkins ($10,853)
30. Narinder Singh Khasria ($10,853)
31. Mark Wahba ($10,853)
32. Andres Garcia ($10,853)
33. Brian Ray ($10,853)
34. Bryan Micon ($10,853)
35. Joseph Stachowiak ($10,853)
36. Timothy Campbell ($10,853)
37. Paul Wasicka ($8,987)
38. Zackery Whitney ($8,987)
39. Jefri Islam ($8,987)
40. Dustin An ($8,987)
41. David Mcconachie ($8,987)
42. Steven Karr ($8,987)
43. Joseph Ward ($8,987)
44. Gregory Josifovski ($8,987)
45. Kelly Kim ($8,987)
46. Ty Reiman ($7,538)
47. Brent Hanks ($7,538)
48. Amit Makhija ($7,538)
49. Frank Kassela ($7,538)
50. Dylan Wilkerson ($7,538)
51. Marvin Burkholder ($7,538)
52. Nicholas Augustino ($7,538)
53. Gyorgy Laszlo ($7,538)
54. Darin Ledbetter ($7,538)
55. Joe Serock ($6,384)
56. Timothy Stoecklin ($6,384)
57. Miguel Angel Ortiz ($6,384)
58. Jeffrey Tomlinson ($6,384)
59. David Diaz ($6,384)
60. Kiet Tuan ($6,384)
61. Farzad Raji ($6,384)
62. Kevin Schwinn ($6,384)
63. Saul Pimentel ($6,384)
64. Michael Vance ($5,476)
65. Paul Fisher ($5,476)
66. Mehrdad Shariatmadari ($5,476)
67. Wade Townsend ($5,476)
68. Michael Katz ($5,476)
69. Ken James ($5,476)
70. Isidro Sifuentes ($5,476)
71. David Whalen ($5,476)
72. Mikhail Voloshen ($5,476)
73. Bryson Pare ($4,763)
74. John Zentner ($4,763)
75. Ruben Garcia ($4,763)
76. William Prieto ($4,763)
77. Nick Schulman ($4,763)
78. James Barger ($4,763)
79. Adam Kagin ($4,763)
80. Nils Bergqvist ($4,763)
81. James Agate ($4,763)
82. Dominik Nitsche ($4,174)
83. Jules Dmello ($4,174)
84. Can Kim Hua ($4,174)
85. Michael Aron ($4,174)
86. Richard Jackson ($4,174)
87. Wilson Calixtoconcalves ($4,174)
88. Mario Sanchez ($4,174)
89. Antonio Garza ($4,174)
90. Ryan Olisar ($4,174)
91. Zal Irani ($3,732)
92. Dmitry Kataev ($3,732)
93. Steven Kelly ($3,732)
94. Matthew Ezrol ($3,732)
95. Sandro Galli ($3,732)
96. Kam Low ($3,732)
97. George Waller ($3,732)
98. Aaron Overton ($3,732)
99. Justin Zaki ($3,732)
100. John Teel ($3,339)
101. Benjamin Zamani ($3,339)
102. John White ($3,339)
103. Todd Terry ($3,339)
104. Michael Taylor ($3,339)
105. Max Ovseyevitz ($3,339)
106. Zachery Schneider ($3,339)
107. Andrea Vezzani ($3,339)
108. David Melius ($3,339)
109. Tayfun Akbasli ($3,339)
110. Andy Frankenberger ($3,339)
111. Nipun Java ($3,339)
112. Athanasios Polychronopoulos ($3,339)
113. Gunther Gerhaed ($3,339)
114. Donald Belanger ($3,339)
115. Tarek Djouhri ($3,339)
116. Cary Katz ($3,339)
117. Danny Gonzales ($3,339)
118. Feizal Satchu ($3,339)
119. Simon Charette ($3,339)
120. Kiran Srinivas ($3,339)
121. Christian Nolte ($3,339)
122. Nelson Resendiz ($3,339)
123. Scott Carlson ($3,339)
124. Noah Bronstein ($3,339)
125. Peter Hengsakul ($3,339)
126. Mark Alag ($3,339)
127. Robert Smith ($3,020)
128. Jonathan Rapp ($3,020)
129. Tomer Berda ($3,020)
130. Michael Gathy ($3,020)
131. Perry Lin ($3,020)
132. Eric Baldwin ($3,020)
133. Todd Start ($3,020)
134. Foster Levis Jr ($3,020)
135. Matt Brady ($3,020)
136. Steve Zolotow ($3,020)
137. Aaron Steury ($3,020)
138. Siyu Sha ($3,020)
139. Frank Sinopoli ($3,020)
140. Billy McBrayer ($3,020)
141. Robert Harwell ($3,020)
142. Dave Fox ($3,020)
143. Joel Ettedgi ($3,020)
144. Guillaume Lebastard ($3,020)
145. Mike Villemin ($3,020)
146. Jeffery Stasiw ($3,020)
147. Antonio Cosentino ($3,020)
148. Thomas Nicotera ($3,020)
149. Wei Yeh ($3,020)
150. John Scanlon ($3,020)
151. Mukul Pahuja ($3,020)
152. Stuart Pfeifer ($3,020)
153. Ryan Smith ($3,020)
154. Michael Laake ($3,020)
155. Nghia Tran ($3,020)
156. Olivier Dinand ($3,020)
157. Steven Moronez Sr. ($3,020)
158. Mark Wasielewski ($3,020)
159. Paul Ranieri ($3,020)
160. Shay Zurr ($3,020)
161. Matthew Chang ($3,020)
162. Martin Jacobson ($3,020)
163. Greg Ostrander ($2,774)
164. Thibaud Guenegou ($2,774)
165. Mihai Manole ($2,774)
166. Elton Beebe ($2,774)
167. Foster Levis ($2,774)
168. Gordon Eng ($2,774)
169. Robert Ribic ($2,774)
170. Will Jaffe ($2,774)
171. Giovanni Massa ($2,774)
172. Kathryn Lindsay ($2,774)
173. Christopher Lastiwka ($2,774)
174. Jake Balsiger ($2,774)
175. David Tuthill ($2,774)
176. William Davenport ($2,774)
177. Alen Patatanyan ($2,774)
178. Sylvain Caldagues ($2,774)
179. Kou Vang ($2,774)
180. Dan Kelly ($2,774)
181. Brian Egger ($2,774)
182. Simon Harig ($2,774)
183. Kevin Iacofano ($2,774)
184. Michael Schwartz ($2,774)
185. Jonas Klausen ($2,774)
186. Luke Graham ($2,774)
187. Jamie McCarrel ($2,774)
188. Daniel Sindelar ($2,774)
189. Joe Chang ($2,774)
190. Jessica Francis ($2,774)
191. Patrick Murray ($2,774)
192. Derek Wolters ($2,774)
193. Roger Fang ($2,774)
194. Brett Jungblut ($2,774)
195. Huy Nguyen ($2,774)
196. Steven Moronez Jr. ($2,774)
197. Jason Potter ($2,774)
198. Mateo Peralta ($2,774)