Valdemar Kwaysser has done himself and his country proud at the World Series of Poker this week, surviving a grueling final table and emerging the victor of the $10,000 Championship of Pot Limit Hold’em.

The Hungarian native’s performance lead to the third bracelet win in his country’s WSOP history, ensuring he will receive a very warm welcome upon his return home. In winning a bracelet for Hungary, he follows in the footsteps of Peter Traply, who won the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’Em Six Handed Shootout last year in 2009, and Peter Gelencser, who took down Hungary’s second bracelet in the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event during the first week of this year’s series. Clearly a big year for Hungarian poker, but an even bigger year for Kwaysser himself who, with this tournament, brings his 2010 WSOP cashes up to a total of three, and his career tournament winnings to over $1.2 million.

The young professional showed his poker strength and his ability to adapt over the course of the event, which was a variant of poker he was not entirely familiar with. “I have to tell you, I don’t know much about Pot Limit Hold’em, I have barely played the game,” Kwaysser admitted after his success, but maintained he didn’t feel completely lost. “I knew from the structure that the lack of ante made it a much tighter game which fits me pretty well.”

With a field of 268 players, it would be easy to expect that the biggest challenge would be outlasting the masses and making the top ten, but the real struggle proved to be the long and arduous final table, which dragged on for nine hours. Over the course of the first five hours there was not a single elimination, and even after the first player dropped it took a further four hours before Kwaysser was able to stand up as the new Pot Limit Hold’Em Champion, having knocked out five of his nine competitors himself.

As heads-up play commenced Kwaysser had a comfortable chip lead which was able to weather the storm of two early double-ups by his opponent Matt Marafioti. Kwaysser still had Marafioti covered as all the chips went into the middle on a Jc6sTc flop, Kwaysser tabling top pair with Jd8d but having to fade many outs from Marafioti’s Kc6c. The turn fell the queen of spades, missing both players. As the river card was dealt and revealed to be the harmless 7s, Kwaysser’s top pair held, winning him the pot, the championship and the $617,214 first place prize money.

The future looks good for the young Hungarian professional, and in the years to come we can surely expect to see more of him as well as plenty more talented Hungarians inspired by his and his countrymen’s outstanding performances at the World Series of Poker.

The official final table results are as follows:

1. Valdemar Kwaysser — $617,214
2. Matt Marafioti — $381,507
3. James Calderaro — $284,845
4. Konstantin Bucherl — $214,106
5. Dani Stern — $161,934
6. Thomas Marchese — $123,264
7. Peter Jetten — $94,394
8. Blair Rodman — $72,754
9. Alexander Kuzmin — $56,404