Twenty-five year old professional poker player Matthew Ashton currently has it all. With his victory in event #55, $50,000 Poker Players Championship, the UK pro not only won the “Chip” Reese Memorial trophy, the $1.77MM first prize and his first WSOP gold bracelet, but with the help of his other previous final table appearances this summer, Ashton overtook WSOP-APAC Main Event Champ Daniel Negreanu in the WSOP Player of the Year race.
As one would expect at an event of this caliber, the final table was stacked with recognizable names and top tier talent. Ashton had to hang tough through the eliminations of 2010 WSOP Main Event Champ Jonathan Duhamel, bracelet winners Mike Wattel, John Hennigan and David Benyamine, WPT Champ Minh Ly and also, eventually, the dangerous Don Nguyen.
Nguyen entered the final table with a healthy chip lead but, in the end, was forced home in 2nd place, marking his 2nd runner up finish in the 2013 WSOP, for a prize that still makes him a millionaire, if he wasn’t already—nearly $1.1MM.
