Twin Cities poker star Derek McMaster wins World Series of Poker event for $228K payout

A Twin Cities card shark is the newest big fish in the poker pond.

Derek "The Kid" McMaster, of Richfield, outlasted 852 other players in Las Vegas and claimed a World Series of Poker (WSOP) event on Sunday.

McMaster, 46, collects a gold bracelet and a $228,228 pot Sunday for a nice return on his $1,500 entry fee.

He won playing Omaha hi-low split-8 or better, more succinctly known as Omaha/8.

The first bracelet was won on Thursday, and there will be a total of 89 handed out by July 16.

His head-to-head victory came against Jason Berilgen, of Houston. His close-but-no-bracelet take was $141,007. He's now earned more than $336,000 at WSOP gatherings.

This was McMaster's first time making it to the WSOP finals table.

"It was very surreal to me," McMaster said in an interview for wsop.com. "I've just been on cloud nine. ... I try to just have fun when I'm playing. If I'm not having fun, I'm usually not doing very well. The more fun I have, it seems like stuff goes my way."

Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482