If there’s one big positive to take from this year’s World Series of Poker, it’s that attendance figures have been on the rise. The dark days of Black Friday might take some credit, but the overall message is that poker in United States is far from dead.

Event #8 has been one of the finest evocations of that maxim so far. Ever since they were introduced a few years ago, the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em tournaments have been extremely popular. This latest version was no exception, with 4,178 players putting their money on the line. It took five days of action to separate a winner from the pack, with U.S. pro Sean Getzwiller eventually taking it down.

As Day 3 got underway, Jon “PearJammer” Turner became the focus of attention. The long time pro has come excruciatingly close to winning a bracelet before, but has never quite made it over the finish line. Leading in chips with 59 players remaining, this looked like his best shot at picking up some WSOP gold.

When play halted with three remaining, Jon was still in the running. He was clearly the most established player in the final trio, but plenty of big names had made it into the money. Among the recognizable faces leaving Event #8 with slightly thicker wallets were Gavin Griffin (215th), Kathy Leibert (204th), Ylon Schwartz (174th), Layne Flack (95th), Jonathan Duhamel (54th), and Eric Mizrachi (50th).

Despite an undoubted pedigree, PearlJammer had his work cut out for him as play resumed on Day 5. With more than a 4:1 chip deficit against the big stack, it would have been a tall order for him to take down the title. Sure enough he fell in third place, once against just missing out on glory.

That left Getzwiller and London-based Sadan Turker to battle it out for the title. Turker was attempting to become the third Brit bracelet winner in as many days, while young pro Getzwiller was set to record his 9th WSOP cash. Until this morning, Sean’s biggest cash was his second ever tournament entry: runner-up in the 2008 WPT Doyle Brunson Five Diamond World Poker Classics for $125,000.

Their epic heads-up confrontation would last for five hours, with the chip lead constantly shifting back and forth. Eventually Sadan put his stack into the middle with A-9 and Getzwiller called with 5-5. Fittingly, this close contest would be settled with a classic race.

The match was all but over on the flop, as a 5 fell to complete Sean’s set and leave Sadan drawing to runner runner outs. Neither turn nor river was of any help to the British pro, meaning that the Event #8 bracelet is staying in the United States. Getzwiller picked up $611,185 for his victory and Sadan received $377,411 for second.

Speaking to reporters after the tournament, Getzwiller was philosophical about his performance. “You’ve got to win a lot of races and get lucky a few times,” he said. Still he was quick to recall the scale of his achievement, noting, “In a field like this you’re going to have so many bosses at the end.”

The final table payouts for WSOP 2011 Event #8 were as follows:

1. Sean Getzwiller $611,185 United States
2. Sadan Turker $377,411 United Kingdom
3. Jon Turner $274,005 United States
4. Max Weinberg $201,433 United States
5. Stefan Raffay $149,392 Sweden
6. Lawrence Riley $111,753 United States
7. Hunter Frey $84,341 United States
8. Daniel Haglund $64,186 Sweden
9. Odette Tremblay $49,258 United States