British poker pro and Black Belt Poker founder Neil Channing today came as close as you can get to winning his first ever WSOP golden bracelet.

Channing had signed up for event #43, the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em, and had navigated through a massive field of 2,770 starters to earn a spot on the final table.

Once qualified for the final table, Channing continued his run for the bracelet, and even held 75% of the chips as he entered three-handed play.

Sadly for the iconic pro, he failed to hold on to his lead, and eventually lost out in the heads-up duel with the just 22-year-old New Yorker Henry Lu.

The defeat is likely to be extra painful for Channing, who has been breathtakingly close to winning a golden bracelet on several occasions before.

Back in 2008, Channing finished fourth in a £1,500 NLHE event at the WSOP Europe, and two years later he fell in second place in the 2010 WSOP in Las Vegas in a $5,000 Shootout event.

Symptomatically for his luck, Channing in today's event lost his bid for the title after a decisive flip against Lu, as the two players ended all-in after three hours of heads-up play.

Channing held against Lu's , and needed to win the flip to stay in the tournament. The dealer, however, laid out a blank board to give Lu the win and the bracelet.

The runner-up finish awarded Channing $406,409, and will bring Channing's lifetime cashes to a little more than $3.3 million. He will at the same time move into 11th place overall on the English All Time Money List, trailing players like James Akenhead, Jake Cody and Ram Vaswani in the next places.

Meanwhile, Lu picked up a first prize of $654,380, as well as the first bracelet of his short career.