The winner of Event #29, the $3,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold'em championship, was 23-year-old aspiring poker pro Shankar Pillai, from Commack, NY. This was the first WSOP event Pillai has ever entered. He won $527,829 and the gold bracelet.

Dustin Holmes arrived at the final table as the chip leader (and eventually exited in fourth place). But from the start, all eyes were on superstar Phil Hellmuth, Jr. The 11-time gold bracelet winner was gunning for number 12 and made things interesting for a while. But he eventually busted out in 6th place.