Andy Frankenberger has experienced a lot of success over the last calendar year, making two final tables on the World Poker Tour and winning the Legends of Poker event, enough to make him the 2011 WPT Player of the Year.

Frankenberger continued his hot run Saturday, winning his first career World Series of Poker bracelet and a winner’s share of $599,153.

He defeated Josh Evans heads-up on his way to the title. They began their match with Evans holding slightly less than a 3-to-2 lead over Frankenberger, when a crucial pot went Frankenberger’s way. Evans’ AT was well behind the AK of Frankenberger, and it only got worse when Frankenberger flopped the Broadway straight.

Frankenberger didn’t look back after that pot, winning the majority of the showdowns and flexing the power of his stack. On the final hand the two got all-in on a flop of J75 with Frankenberger well ahead with J7 against Evans’ JT. The board would be no help for Evans, and he would fall short in second place.

The stack sizes were deep for this point in the tournament, with even the third place player holding more than 80 big blinds. Yet what could have taken many hours was over in just a few.

“I decided to stay on the sidelines,” said Frankenberger, “and as I did that the other two battled it out. The next thing you know it’s heads-up. I was shocked at how quickly it played out.”

Event 28, a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event, brought together a massive field of 2,500 hopefuls on Day 1, starting the current streak of three consecutive days in which fields of at least that size. With the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event scheduled for Sunday, it’s quite likely that streak will grow to four.

After a few uneventful orbits, Robert Shortway doubled-up through Steven Merrifield and overtook the chip lead. Shortway’s KK held off Merrifield’s QQ in a pot worth over 2 million.

Brett Hruby was the second shortest stack entering the final table, needing to get his chips into the middle in hopes of getting his way back into contention. The spot he picked got him into a coinflip, with his KJ up against Merrifield’s TT. The board offered no help for Hruby, and he was the first player eliminated from the final table, taking ninth.

On the last hand before a break, Evans three-bet Sydney Hasson, who called, and the flop came AT9. Hasson check-raised all-in and was called, which would pit Hasson’s KQ against Evans’ AJ. Neither the 8 on the turn nor the A on the river would complete either of Hasson’s draws, and he would hit the rail in eighth place.

Thao Nguyen came back from that break as the shortest stack, and he didn’t take long to get those chips all-in. Nguyen three-bet all-in, with the original raiser Frankenberger calling as soon as the action returned to him. Nguyen’s AQ was way behind Frankenberger’s AA. The KQ4 gave Nguyen some tangible outs, and the J gave him a few cards to chop. But the6 was the last card Nguyen would see, at least in this tournament, going out in seventh.

After a few orbits of six-handed play, three rapid-fire bustouts happened seemingly out of nowhere. On a 987 board, Merrifield check-raised Shortway, who called. The Q on the turn had Merrifield and Shortway getting nearly 1 million chips each into the pot with Merrifield all-in. He was drawing to a chop, however, as his T9 was well behind Shortway’s nut straight with the JT. The 8 on the river was the knockout blow, sending Merrifield out of the tournament in sixth place.

The second in the series of lightning fast eliminations had Tyler Kenney all-in with 89 against Evans’ AJ. Kenney flopped a ton of outs on the QJ4 flop, but couldn’t hit either draw, eliminating him in fifth.

On the very next hand Owen Crowe got his remaining chips in with A4 against Frankenberger’s A9, and with a nine on the flop Crowe could not catch-up, knocking him out in fourth.

A fourth all-in in the same short period of time gave Frankenberger the chip lead. His JJ held strong against Shortway’s AT in a pre-flop all-in, giving Frankenberger about 4.5 million chips, but both Shortway and Evans each still had over 3 million.

With more than 80 big blinds for each player when three-handed play began, it could have taken quite some time to see an all-in. But it didn’t. The largest pot of the tournament to that point developed between Shortway and Evans on a J75 board. After Shortway bet out and was raised by Evans, Shortway went all-in for 3.3 million, a very large raise in comparison to the pot. Evans thought for less than a minute before calling with QJ, but Shortway was all-in for a reason, tabling two-pair with 75.

Both players were virtually even, with Shortway having just a few more chips than Evans. The 4 on the turn kept Shortway ahead, with just one card separating the former Marine from a heads-up match with the chip lead. The river, however, was a heartbreaking 4 for Shortway, counterfeiting his two-pair and giving Evans the monster pot. Shortway would be eliminated two hands later in a three-way pot in which Frankenberger made a seven-high straight, settling for third place.

Along with his cash in the $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha, Shortway has recorded his only two career tournament cashes. The $263,655 he banked for his third place finish is several times the average yearly salary a Marine would make,

As the heads-up battle began, Evans held a chip lead of slightly less than 3-to-2. They battled for a couple of hours but it was Frankenberger who was able to get the best of things when the bracelet was on the line.

“For me this win is just so important,” said Frankenberger, “because when I won Legends, when I won Venetian, poker was very new to me. I hadn’t invested that much into it in terms of time and energy, and at this point I’ve been playing all year and traveling all year. This is my first big win of 2011, I can’t tell you how much this one means to me right now.”

Here are the official results for Event 28:

1. Andy Frankenberger – $599,153
2. Josh Evans – $372,498
3. Rob Shortway – $263,655
4. Owen Crowe – $190,147
5. Tyler Kenney – $138,847
6. Steven Merrifield – $102,600
7. Thao Nguyen – $76,747
8. Sydney Hasson – $58,083
9. Brett Hruby – $44,482

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