Sometimes, when writing these pieces about the World Series of Poker (WSOP), I try to come up with some sort of interesting narrative about the winner to put his accomplishment in perspective or at least make the story more entertaining. In the case of Eric Buchman, though, his victory in the 2014 WSOP Event #34: $1,500 Seven Card Stud doesn’t really need much of any framing. It was a great win by a terrific poker player.
This was Buchman’s second WSOP bracelet; the first coming in 2010 in a $2,000 Limit Hold’em event. An easy story line to force (and it is actually fairly interesting) would be that this was the second win in as many days by members of the 2009 WSOP Main Event final table. But, as Buchman told WSOP officials in an interview afterward, there isn’t really that much to say about his win compared to Joe Cada’s in the $10,000 Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em Event. “Late last night when I got home and I looked online, I saw [Joe] won the bracelet,” Buchman said. “I didn’t think it really had anything to do with me, but I did think it would be sweet if I won one also. Even though he’s won a lot more money than me, we’re still two bracelets to two bracelets.”
In his career, Buchman has come extremely close to a number of WSOP bracelets, not counting the two he has now won. He has finished as a runner-up twice, third once (in this same event in 2011), fourth once (the 2009 WSOP Main Event), sixth once, and tenth once. His opponent heads-up in this tournament, Alex Kravchenko, has almost the same amount of lifetime earnings ($4,171,721 for Kravchenko versus $4,260,305 for Buchman) and even more top ten finishes, nine, including a fourth place in the 2007 WSOP Main Event and a bracelet earlier that season.
“He played really well today, it just didn’t go his way,” said Buchman of Kravchenko. “I have so much heads-up experience in this game, that I really felt good. I didn’t want to go heads-up against him…cause I felt like Kravchenko was the better player [at the table], but it worked out.”
Overall, though, Buchman felt he had an edge in this tournament, saying, “It’s not even that [Stud] is my best game. It might be my best game. I play a lot of stud all the time. I feel like most of the people who play don’t have the experience that I do in this game. That’s why I think I have the edge that I do in this game. For instance, I am a really good Limit Hold’em player, but there’s a ton of really good Limit Hold’em players. There’s not a ton of really good Stud High players, you know?”
2014 World Series of Poker Event #34: $1,500 Seven Card Stud – Final Table Results
1. Eric Buchman – $118,785
2. Alex Kravchenko – $73,360
3. Aleksandr Denisov – $47,315
4. William Thompson – $34,283
5. Bryn Kenney – $25,206
6. Nabih Helmi – $18,802
7. Mallory Smith – $14,228
8. David Prager – $10,921
