One of the wonderful things about poker is as long as you have the buy-in and the intestinal fortitude, you can sit down and play with anybody. You don’t have to be able to hit a devastating curveball or hit a three-pointer with a hand in your face. Just learn the rules of the game and you can play. Ask Texan Larry Wright, who won the 2012 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #30: $1,500 2-7 No-Limit Draw Lowball just days after learning how to play the game.
Wright readily admitted that he made some rookie mistakes, such as discarding a deuce instead of an ace during a hand in day one. But that aside, he looked to have all the right moves on his way to his first ever WSOP gold bracelet.
Wright began the strong 7-handed final table next-to-last in chips with just 116,200, looking up a steep hill at chip leader Brandon Cantu, who had 336,100. Also standing in the way were the likes of Erick Lindgren, Rep Porter, Michael Mizrachi and Andrew Lichtenberger.
Wright’s rise to the bracelet was not an easy one. While the entirety of the final table was relatively short, it took him some time to finally start his ascent. He had gained a few chips here and there during the first hour, but by the end of the second hour when there were just four players remaining, he was tied at the bottom with Mizrachi, each holding just 65,000 chips. It looked like it was easily going to be Cantu and Lichtenberger squaring off for the title. But after Mizrachi was eliminated, Wright doubled-up two hands in a row to climb over 200,000 and then took another six-figures from Lichtenberger to increase his stack to 320,000.
Around the three-hour mark, Larry Wright had taken the lead in an extremely close match, 440,000 chips to Cantu’s 427,000 to Lichtenberger’s 415,000. He kept rolling from there, leaping over 500,000 then 600,000, then up to 740,000 when he knocked out Lichtenberger. Going into heads-up play, Wright had about a 200,000 chip advantage on Brandon Cantu.
Cantu started well, winning the first heads-up hand, but after that it was all Wright. If one were to graph the progress of Wright’s chips, the line would have been a beautiful upward slope with almost no dips at all. Eventually, Cantu was down under 200,000 chips and made the move to go all-in with T-9-6-3. Wright made the call with 9-8-7-3. It was close. But when Wright drew a 4, it was all over. There was no way Cantu could make a better hand; his Queen was useless. Larry Wright had won his first bracelet.
Wright had already made the money in two previous tournaments this World Series to go along with six from prior years. Before now, his best finish was 8th in the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha High/Low event in 2008. The win brings his career live tournament earnings to just under $400,000.
2012 WSOP Event #30: $1,500 2-7 No-Limit Draw Lowball – Final Table Results
1. Larry Wright – $101,975
2. Brandon Cantu – $63,048
3. Andrew Lichtenberger – $41,445
4. Michael Mizrachi – $28,198
5. Erick Lindgren – $19,676
6. Rep Porter – $14,078
7. Ryan Tepen – $10,318