Matt “mattg1983″ Graham played Limit Hold ‘em for 17 hours all day Wednesday and into Thursday, but just ask him if it was worth the frustration and exhaustion. Graham overcame an enormous heads-up chip lead by Jean-Robert Bellande to earn a World Series of Poker bracelet at his first ever World Series final table in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout.

Graham was almost silent for most of the evening, rarely playing any large pots, and snuck his way into a heads up match with Bellande. From there, it seemed almost too easy as Graham used Bellande’s short fuse to his advantage and picked off a number of Bellande’s bluffs to even the match.

The big blow came a little after 7:00 am PT in Round 19. On a flop of J52, Bellande bet 50K and Graham raised. Bellande called and saw the 4 fall on the turn. He check-raised a bet from Graham and Matt called. Bellande then check-called a bet from Graham when the 7 came on the river and mucked when Graham flipped over J9.

Bellande was left was less than 300K chips after the hand and was eliminated two hands later when he got it in preflop with 97 against Graham’s AJ. The board was kind to Matt, who earned $278,180 and the gold bracelet for his first-place finish.

We’ll be back at noon for the kickoff of the 2008 World Series of Poker Main Event!

• July 3, 2008 -- The Late Show with Jean-Robert
• July 3, 2008 -- Spencer None the Richer
• July 3, 2008 -- Sitron Takes 2nd
• July 3, 2008 -- A Graham Adventure