On Sunday, residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana rejoiced as one of their own, Aaron ndgrinder59Steury (pictured), blasted through the field of a $1,500 HORSE event at the 2011 World Series of Poker (WSOP). The 17th tournament on the 2011 WSOP schedule drew a crowd of 963 players and the top 96 landed in the money. Steury collected $289,000 and notched his first WSOP bracelet.

In one of the defining hands of the tournament, 3bet action occurred before the flop, which came 6-5-10. Steury bet 50,000 and Adam Friedman called to see the king of hearts on the turn, putting two of the suit on board. Steury pushed out a bet worth 100,000, Friedman called, and the river was the deuce of spades.

Steury checked when the final card hit and Friedman chose to be the aggressor, this time betting 100,000. Coverage found on WSOP.com details what happened next: “Steury stared his man down for 30 seconds or so and apparently picked up a tell because he made the call and waited for Friedman to table his hand.”

When the cards were revealed, Friedman showed 9-7 of hearts for busted straight and flush draws, while Steury tabled Q-J for just queen-high. A press release distributed by WSOP officials on Monday explained, “The final table played on for another 90 minutes, but the outcome was really decided then and there.”

On the hero call, Steury told WSOP officials, “I thought there was a pretty good chance I had the best hand… I was right and I was confident the rest of the tournament. I was spot on. That was the turning point.” Friedman, who took 45th in the 2005 Main Event, finished in third place for $121,000.

Steury has been a member of PocketFives.com since 2006. His largest score came one year later in the Wednesday Hundred-Fifty Grand on PokerStars, which he took down to the tune of $46,000. He’s a former UB Online Championship event winner and has nearly $600,000 in tracked cashes on PocketFives.com.

A small congratulatory threadpopped up in the Live Poker forum, with the original poster heralding, “ndgrinder59 wins bracelet! Event 17, HORSE $1.5K for almost $300K… Huge congrats to you bro!”

Several community members also congratulated Steury on our WSOP Twitterpage. Jonathan WeinTweeted, “Congrats to @NDGrinder on beating a pretty good FT and winning his first bracelet in the $1,500 HORSE – Congrats!” Kevin BeL0WaB0Ve Saul chimed in, “Congrats Aaron @NDgrinder Steury on winning the $1,500 WSOP HORSE and his 1st WSOP bracelet!”

Here is how the final table cashed out in Event #17 of the 2011 WSOP, a $1,500 HORSE event:

1. Aaron ndgrinder59 Steury – $289,283
2. Michael Chow – $178,691
3. Adam Friedman – $121,437
4. Jonathan driverseati Tamayo – $84,516
5. Ron Grumpy696 Ware – $60,036
6. Denis Ethier – $43,512
7. David Baker – $32,150
8. Paolo Compagno – $24,219

Members of PocketFives.com have now scooped six of the 17 WSOP bracelets handed out so far, a 35% success rate. In addition, community members have walked away with over $6.6 million from 31 final table appearances. Check out our entire WSOP coverage page.

Still taking place at the Rio in Las Vegas, the site of the annual WSOP, is a $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event (#18), which is down to 36 players after starting with over 3,100. First place is scheduled to make a healthy $735,000 and everyone remaining is assured at least $17,000.

Foster Hays holds the chip lead in Event #18 entering Day 3 with 1.25 million, while PocketFives.com member and Michigan native Jordan Jymaster0011Young (pictured) is second in chips with 1.08 million. Young, who can be found at #7 worldwide in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings, has one WSOP in the money finish for $18,000 to his name. He’s a two-time Monthly PLB champion.

Besides Young, other online poker players still standing as Event #18 winds to a close include Bryan Bry23Barrile, Tristan Cre8iveWade, Dylan thedylanThomassie, and Robert rtkoss Koss.

Visit our 2011 WSOP coverage page to check out the latest news from Las Vegas and read what your fellow community members are gabbing about.