Congratulations to Ville Wahlbeck, Event #12 Champion! ($492,375)

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These days, it's rare to see some genuine emotion at the tables. So often our game is marred by the excessive celebrations and fist-pumping that make so many of us cringe and roll our eyes, but moments after Ville Wahlbeck won his first WSOP bracelet, he shed more than a few tears of joy and had to take a moment in the corner of the final table area to collect himself and let his accomplishment sink in.

Wahlbeck already made it to one final table this week, finishing third in the $10,000 World Championship Seven-Card Stud event for a nearly $153,000 payday. He can now add $492,375 and a gold bracelet to his 2009 WSOP winnings.

A soft-spoken young man from Helsinki, Finland, 33-year old Wahlbeck is a regular on the European Poker Tour, but this is his first stateside tournament victory. His win tonight also marks the first WSOP bracelet for a Finnish player. Recently, he posted in his blog that he was thinking about quitting poker, but we have a feeling that after his win tonight, he'll be a force on the felt for a long time to come.

Congratulations to Ville Wahlbeck on a very well-deserved win.