It was a busy day Tuesday at the 2016 World Series of Poker as three gold bracelets were awarded overnight. Let’s take a quick look at the latest owners of poker jewelry:
Event #14: $1,500 Millionaire Maker No-Limit Hold’em
Poker pro Jason DeWitt won one of the most difficult tournaments of the WSOP, the $1,500 “Millionaire Maker.” Introduced a few years ago as a more affordable (relatively speaking) event with a million dollar guarantee for first place, the Millionaire Maker achieved instant popularity and is always one of the largest live tournaments of the year. This year, it attracted 7,190 entries, making it the eighth-largest live poker tournament of all-time.
For the most part, DeWitt cruised through the 107 hands of the final table, which was composed mostly of first-time WSOP players. Garrett Greer almost pulled even during heads-up play, but all in all, it was as easy a trek from the final table to victory as one can have at the WSOP. DeWitt was very modest when talking about his triumph, though, saying afterward, “It helped that I got lots of good cards. When I’m dealt good cards, it’s easy to be the aggressor. I also didn’t make any big mistakes. But it’s easier when you keep getting dealt good cards.”
This was DeWitt’s second gold bracelet; his first came in $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em in 2010. While the first bracelet is always is the most special, this one was important to DeWitt. In his post-tournament interview, he said, “I really think this is a validation to win a second gold bracelet. I feel that everybody has one bracelet with so many events on the schedule. If you play the whole WSOP, and most pros do that, most of them have (at least) one now….so this definitely is validation because it’s so hard to do.”
Event #17: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Though the buy-in was only two-thirds of the previously discussed tournament, the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Event drew less than a third of the crowd because, unlike the Millionaire Maker, it didn’t guarantee a million dollar top prize. That likely matters very little to Chase Bianchi, though, as he won the tourney along with $316,920 in his first-ever WSOP cash.
The 28-year old from Maryland had impeccable timing. In his interview, he said he had a flight home booked for the next afternoon, as he had already been in Las Vegas for two weeks. This was probably the last event he was going to play. Now significantly richer, he said he and his wife may use his prize money to help pay for a house.
Like the Millionaire Maker, most of the players at the final table were newcomers to the WSOP because of the low buy-in. As such, Bianchi employed the great strategy of staying aggressive and trying to steal lots of blinds, as he figured that most of his opponents were more concerned with moving up the money ladder than actually winning the tournament.
On the final hand, it looked like Erik Silberman was going to double-up through Bianchi, as Silberman had pocket Tens all-in pre-flop versus Bianchi’s pocket Eights, but as is usually the case when winning a large tournament, luck was on Bianchi’s side. After a flop of Q-6-5, Bianchi hit runner-runner straight to snatch the pot away from Silberman and earn his first WSOP bracelet.
Event #18: $3,000 H .O. R. S. E.
Marco Johnson won the $3,000 H .O. R. S. E. event, his second career victory at the World Series of Poker. He previously won the $2,500 Six-Handed Limit Hold’em Event at the 2013 WSOP.
While many professional poker players tend to care more about winning the bracelet than the money (and many are the opposite), the money was a big deal to Johnson for this tournament. The quarter-million dollar purse is on the low end of first prizes at the WSOP, but it will be of great help to Johnson (as it would be to 99.9 percent of us).
“This one feels a lot better, for sure,” Johnson said of this second bracelet. “I just got married and my wife is six-months pregnant, so with a kid on the way, this is more special.”
We think he’s set on diapers.
On top of his own financial windfall, Johnson also won a pile of money for friends. He encouraged two of his friends to bet a “significant” amount of money that he would win a bracelet this summer, so that paid off in spades. His friends should trust him blindly for the rest of their lives.