Professional poker player Carsten Joh gave Germany its first World Series of Poker champion since Sebastian Ruthenberg’s 2008 win, when he won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event (#51) Monday evening. Joh outlasted a field of 2,781 to earn his first gold bracelet and $664,426.
Much like many of the previous $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments at the 2009 WSOP, this final table included no former WSOP gold bracelet winners. Joh claimed his first when he defeated Canadian Andrew Chen for the title.
An accomplished backgammon player, Joh competed in international backgammon tournaments and played in various clubs for many years. One of Joh’s friends from the backgammon tournaments was Danish poker player Gus Hansen. With Monday’s victory he now has one more WSOP bracelet than the prominent poker superstar.
“The bracelet means a lot because you have it for the rest of your life”, Joh said afterward. “Whatever you’ve got later on, you can always say you won a bracelet. Even if you stop playing poker – you just have it. If you come second, you really have nothing. You have the money. But nobody talks about that. It is just like that in sports. Everyone remembers the winner.”
At 45 years of age, Joh was the oldest player at the final table. Six of the nine players were age 27 and younger, and the youngest was 21-year-old Chen. Joh sent him home as the runner-up when Chen moved his remaining chips into the middle with [Td][9d] after Joh raised from the button. Joh quickly called and flipped over pocket sixes. The [Qd][4c][3c] flop didn’t give much hope to Chen but the [5d] on the turn gave him a flush draw. Joh then ended things when the [6s] fell on the river, giving him a set to eliminate Chen in 2nd place for $412,426.
On winning the tournament as the oldest player, Joh said: “Normally, the older players like me do not win the bracelet. You see every final table with six, seven, or eight players in their 20s. It is more difficult for an older player to win it. I have a lot of respect for the older players because you have to play ten levels and you might be here 13 or 14 hours each day.”
Here are the final results from Event #51:
1. Carsten Joh – $664,426
2. Andrew Chen – $412,632
3. David Walasinksi – $272,405
4. Steven Levy – $192,650
5. Owen Crowe – $145,199
6. Thibaut Durand – $115,817
7. Georgios Kapalas – $97,634
8. Jason Helder – $86,702
9. Nathan Page – $80,894
The $50,000 HORSE event reached its final table Monday evening as the aforementioned Gus Hansen was sent home in 9th place. A short-stacked Hansen was eliminated in the Omaha-8 round when he got his last 30,000 chips in on the flop against Chau Giang:
Flop: [Ks][Kc][8d]
Hansen: [8s][3c][3h][2d]
Giang: [Ah][Kh][Qd][2c]
Hansen was drawing to a three to make a full house but the river was a blank and he left the Rio with $123,895. The remaining eight players, which make up a tremendous final table, will return at 2:00 p.m. Vegas time Tuesday and play until a champion is crowned. The winner will receive the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and $ 1,276,802. The seating arrangement will look like this:
Seat 1: Ville Wahlbeck – 645,000
Seat 2: Erik “Erik123” Sagstrom – 3,675,000
Seat 3: John Hanson – 1,700,000
Seat 4: Huck Seed – 1,380,000
Seat 5: Vitaly Lunkin – 2,490,000
Seat 6: David Bach – 2,345,000
Seat 7: Erik Seidel – 965,000
Seat 8: Chau Giang – 1,075,000
Meanwhile, two more events will award bracelet Tuesday, making for a busy day of poker. The $3,000 Triple Chance No Limit Hold’em event is still loaded with talent as Jason “TheMasterJ33” DeWitt takes the chip lead into the final day. Other notables among the 16 players still in contention include An “The Boss” Tran, Max Greenwood, and online stars Jason “Jcarver” Somerville and Eric “Rizen” Lynch. Play will resume at 1:00 p.m. and finish when a winner is handed a gold bracelet and $506,800.
The other event coming to a close is the $1,500 Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo event. Brian Swinford has the lead with 14 players returning at 2:00 p.m. but PokerStars Team Pro Chad Brown is close behind. Others vying for the title are Allie Prescott and famed poker tournament director Matt Savage. The champion will earn $159,390 for his three days of work.
Stay tuned to Poker News Daily for updates on all of today’s events at the World Series of Poker.
