With both bracelet events on Thursday falling prey to the Hard-Stop Rule we knew at least two WSOP bracelets would be handed out on Friday, with the possibility of up to four bracelets being awarded. In the end three bracelets found new homes around the wrists of first-time winners at the 2011 World Series of Poker, bringing the overall tally of first-time bracelet winners to 36 in the 38 completed events at the 2011 WSOP.

The big name winner on Friday was French poker pro Fabrice Soulier who captured his first WSOP bracelet after defeating Shawn Buchanan in heads-up play in the $10K HORSE tournament. Buchanan was also looking for his first WSOP victory, but will have to settle for his second runner-up performance in two years.

Soulier was joined by Mitch Schock who won the $2,500 Pot Limit Holdem/Omaha tournament and shot into the top 5 of the POY race in the process, and Mikhail Lakhitov who captured the $2,500 No Limit Holdem event and Russia’s second WSOP bracelet in 2011.

The fourth tournament fell victim to the 10-Level Rule during heads-up play, so Arkadiy Tsinis and his 7,110,000 and Michael Blanovsky and his 2,765,000 will reconvene at the Rio on Saturday to determine the champion of Event #38: $1,500 No Limit Holdem tournament. Once again the winner of this event will be a first-time bracelet winner; so far at the 2011 WSOP only John Juanda and Jason Mercier have bucked the trend of first-time winners.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the three completed tournaments on Friday:

Event #36: $2,500 NLHE

1. Mikhail Lakhitov – $749,610

2. Hassan Babajane – $463,480

3. Thomas Middleton – $305,015

4. Thomas Miller – $219,885

5. Eddy Sabat – $160,949

6. Matthew Berkey – $119,528

7. James St. Hilaire – $90,021

8. Conrad Monica – $68,719

9. Kent Padgett – $53,137

10. John Zentner – $41,775

Event #37: $10k HORSE Championship

1. Fabrice Soulier – $609,130

2. Shawn Buchanan – $376,458

3. Andrey Zaichenko – $247,799

4. Daniel Ospina – $180,750

5. Tom Dwan – $134,480

6. Matthew Ashton – $101,813

7. Michael Binger – $78,328

8. Jacobo Fernandez – $61,160

Event #39: $2,500 Pot Limit Holdem/Omaha

1. Mitch Schock – $310,225

2. Rodney Brown – $191,618

3. Jan Collado – $135,921

4. Carter Gill – $97,773

5. Tyler Patterson – $71,317

6. James Vanneman – $52,747

7. David Lestock – $39,539

8. Jonas Mackoff – $30,040

9. Rami Boukai – $23,119

Results courtesy of wsop.com

Tags: Berkey, Bracelets, Buchanan, Conrad, Fabrice Soulier, Hassan, John Juanda, Mercier, Mitch Schock, New Homes, Ospina, Padgett, Pot Limit, Prey, Sabat, Thomas Miller, Time Winners, World Series of Poker, WSOP, Zentner

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