Twenty-four hours ago, real estate developer Craig Brouillette was a complete unknown to the poker community, as he had never recorded a cash in a live tournament, according to the Hendon Mob. Now, he has a piece of WSOP hardware after taking down the $600 No Limit Hold'em event for $16,055 at WSOP-C New Orleans.
"This is huge, huge, huge,” Brouillette told PokerOrg immediately following the win as he was struggling to find the words. “It was a long day [on day one]. I got knocked out early, bought back in, and just ground it out. Even the final table was a grind, man.
"I am so excited to get my first ring. It was an excellent tournament and a lot of fun. I want to play again. I want some more.”
'Pedal to the metal, and it paid off'
To get to the ring, Brouillette had to overcome a nearly 3-to-1 chip deficit heads-up against four-time WSOP Circuit ring winner Curtis Terry, and he did it in 20 minutes without the need of an all-in showdown thanks to a shift in mindset.
“When I was down, I had it in my head to play aggressively, and if I was gonna go out, I was gonna go out raising,” Brouillette said. “Luckily, he folded every time except for the last hand, when I had it. So just pedal to the metal, and it paid off.”
A trip to WSOP Paradise is 'the icing on the cake' for Craig Brouillette.A real estate developer by trade, the Louisiana native learned the game by playing house games with his friends. However, he left the game behind for a few years to start a family with his wife and is now the proud father of three children.
He hopes that now, with a WSOP Circuit ring in his pocket, his wife will let him attend more tournaments in the future. Well, that and maybe a trip to The Bahamas will help, which he also takes home thanks to the win, and with it comes a buy-in to Event #1 at the 2025 WSOP Paradise.
“I didn’t know that. Wait, really? Holy cow. Dude, that is even better, icing on the cake. I might be more excited about that than the ring!” Brouillette said as the $5,000 package to Paradise was explained to him during his winner’s interview.
“I wish my friends could have been here to sweat this, but I was texting them updates throughout the day, and I can’t wait to tell them I won so they can all lose their sh*t.”
