After more than two decades of effort, veteran poker professional Andy Bloch emerged as the champion of Event #7, the $1500 Seven Card Stud tournament, defeating Barry Greenstein in heads up play at the 2012 World Series of Poker.
After getting down to the unofficial final table of nine on Friday night, the players came back on Saturday to determine a champion in the tournament. The chip leader for much of Friday’s action, 2004 WSOP Championship Event runner-up David Williams, came to the felt with almost a 200K chip lead over Bloch and an almost 250K chip lead over Greenstein. Three short stacked players – Joseph Ranciato (ninth, not an official final table finish), Scott Abrams (eighth) and Caroline Hermesh (seventh) were eliminated in rather rapid fashion (barely an hour into the tournament) – while the three professionals continued to rule over the table.
For a Stud tournament, the pace of play was rather rapid as the players tried to contend with the escalating blinds and antes. Lee Goldman would be knocked out soon after Hermesh’s departure, losing a big chunk of his chips to Greenstein before having Williams take him out of the tournament in sixth place. Williams would use those chips to cut some out of the stack of Bloch after that, but would come back down to earth by donating chips to Stephen Su as the table closed onto a break.
After that break, Williams would drop from the chip lead. Starting with a (6-5) 2 of diamonds, Greenstein would make a boat by Seventh Street to trump Williams’ two pair, then Huu Vinh picked off some of Williams’ chips after a fold on Fifth Street. Within the span of 20 minutes, Williams had fallen behind both Su and Greenstein.
That precipitous drop continued for the 2006 winner of this tournament as Bloch and Vinh hacked away stacks of Williams’ arsenal, leaving him sitting as the short stack once Bloch knocked off Vinh in fifth place. Shortly after the start of Level 22 in the final table battle, Williams would depart at the hands of Su, who filled a boat on Seventh Street to leave Williams drawing dead and out in fourth place.
Bloch held the lead at the start of three handed play, with Greenstein and Su within striking distance of him should the right circumstances occur. Su used the time before the triumvirate would go to a dinner break to build his stack through both players, eventually taking the lead over Greenstein and Bloch as they headed off for sustenance. In fact, Bloch was left with only 230K in chips at this point, which gave him less than four rotations to get back in the fight.
It seems that Bloch found something likeable about dinner because, once the trio came back to the felt, he started a rampage that ground up both Su and Greenstein. Within fifteen minutes of the resumption of festivities, Bloch had charged out of his short stack status and assumed the lead in the tournament (as stated, the blinds and antes were high at this point!). Su attempted to keep pace, but would eventually fall in third place at the hands of Bloch.
Down to heads up play, Bloch held a 3:1 chip lead over Greenstein and continued to batter the three time WSOP bracelet and two time World Poker Tour champion as the battle wore on. After 20 minutes of play, Bloch had moved his edge to a commanding 10:1 over Greenstein and it was too much for the 2011 Poker Hall of Fame inductee to come back from.
On the final hand, Greenstein’s remaining chips hit the felt on Fifth Street, holding (7-6) 5-4-8 for a made straight, with Bloch calling with his (Q-Q) J-10-10 for a made two pair with possible bigger backdoor straight and full house potential. Sixth Street opened up the straight draw for Bloch, coming down with an Ace, and the King on Seventh Street finished off Bloch’s hand with a Broadway straight, trumping Greenstein and ending the tournament.
1. Andy Bloch (Las Vegas, NV), $126,363
2. Barry Greenstein (Rancho Palos Verdes, CA), $78,038
3. Stephen Su (Houston, TX), $50,332
4. David Williams (Las Vegas, NV), $36,470
5. Huu Vinh (Huntington Beach, CA), $26,813
6. Lee Goldman (Seattle, WA), $20,001
7. Caroline Hermesh (Summerland, British Columbia), $15,135
8. Scott Abrams (Henderson, NV), $11,618
(Not a member of the official final table was ninth place Joseph Ranciato, taking home $9046)
Although he had won over $4.5 million in his tournament poker career prior to last night, Bloch had never tasted the championship champagne at the WSOP. Most notably, he finished in second place to the late Chip Reese in the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. tournament (now the Poker Players’ Championship) back in 2006 for a million dollar payday, but the runner up spot was the best Bloch had achieved since playing in the WSOP beginning in 1992. With his win in the $1500 Seven Card Stud tournament, Bloch can now knock the “best player never to win a bracelet” tag off of his name.