Shawn Cunix, a noteworthy poker player recently proved his mettle at the 2012 WPT held in Jacksonville when he competed against a strong lineup of poker professionals and still managed to take down the first place prize.
The event in question was the BestBet Open, featured at the World Poker Tour 2012 in Jacksonville and the main event had a 1st place prize worth $400,000 for the winner.
Shawn Cunix took the WPT title for the BestBet Open and was also awarded Player of the Year points. For his win, Cunix took home 672 Player of the Year points for the Card Player award of the same name; this puts Cunix in the running for the contender for this title, which is reputed to be one of the most reputed and recognized in the industry.
This win is the high point of an otherwise bad fortnight that Cunix had been experiencing as a few weeks preceding to the participating in this event both Cunix and his son were in an accident. The accident was a severe one and involved an ATV which almost rolled over and crushed Cunix’ son. However, thanks to some speedy and sacrificing moves on the part of Cunix, where he rolled sandwiched between the machine and his son, fracturing his own collarbone in the course, his son escaped unscathed.
Cunix however was injured and in great pain, even while he played at the 2012 World Poker Tour held in Jacksonville. According to Shawn Cunix, “This has been one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life. If you put desire into something, you’re capable of the implausible.”
The World Poker Tour BestBet Open was a $5,000 buy-in event that managed to pull in as many as 320 participants all competing at the main event for the top prize. The final prize pool that was created was worth a total of $1.5 million which had the players going at the game in full earnest.
The competition was by no means easy and Cunix had to contend with the likes of Will “The Thrill” Failla, a previous winner of the World Poker Tour. Failla did not make it to the final five and dropped out at the 6th place with 224 Card Player “Player of the Year” points.
Other strong contenders for the 1st place prize that Cunix had to go up against included Tony Dunst, Daniel Buzgon and Darren Elias.
