Steve Sung wins WSOP Stimulus Special

[Eric]

The 24-year-old pro had amassed over $2 million in tournament earnings
over the course of his short professional career.
He'd logged four World Series of Poker final tables and two more on
the World Poker Tour.

But he'd never won a big buy-in tournament before Wednesday, when he
defeated Panayote "Pete the Greek" Vilandos in heads-up play to claim
the $1,000 "Stimulus Special" at the 40th annual WSOP.

"I feel amazing," Sung told PokerListings.com shortly after the win.
"I feel like the monkey is off my back."

The Korea-born Californian outlasted a record field of 6,012 entrants
to win the $771,106 first prize.

The final hand saw Sung's pocket kings hold up against Vilandos'
pocket eights in a preflop all-in confrontation.

"It still hasn't sunk in yet," he said. "I'm still in awe. I feel like
an eight came on the river. I'm just speechless, to be honest."

Sung told PokerListings he wasn't even planning to play the "Donkulus"
after busting out of the $40,000 NLHE event.


"I played the $40k and busted that," he said. "I played fairly bad and
was pretty bummed out.

"The next day I played this tournament and I was like, 'you know I
gotta play better. I gotta bounce back.'"

To prepare, the former In-N-Out Burger employee ate fruit. Lots of
fruit.

"I try to eat any kind of fruit every break to keep me going and keep
me awake," he said. "Usually I go to the gym, but not during this
tournament so I guess maybe I'll never work out again.

"Maybe it's my lucky charm."

Sung came into the final table second in chips behind Dan Heimiller
but quickly saw his fortunes falter as he shipped a huge pot in
Vilandos' direction.

He would recover by eliminating Jeff Oakes in seventh place and then
kicked it up a notch, taking over the chip lead and busting Heimiller
(6th), Nathan Mullen (5th) and James Matz (3rd) to set up the brief
heads-up match.


With the bracelet on the table, Sung began with double Vilandos' stack
and would waste little time in picking up the rest.

"I felt really confident about my game," he said. "I felt like I had
him where I wanted him."

Despite lasting barely half an hour heads-up, Vilandos told
PokerListings he had no regrets.

"I feel I played good," he said. "There is a lot of luck involved in
the whole thing.

"The last hand I had two eights and he had two kings. We are both very
aggressive; he could have had ace-king."

"Pete the Greek" added another $473,283 to his $1 million plus in
career earnings and loved every minute of it.

"I feel like I accomplished a lot," he said. "It was a tough
tournament. A lot of tough competition. I enjoyed it very much!

"I'm ready for another one."

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