The largest payday of Saturday’s action at the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) went to John “Tex” Barch, who topped the field in Event #20, a $1,500 Pot Limit Omaha tournament. Barch, who made the final table of the 2005 WSOP Main Event, cashed for $256,000 and earned his first gold bracelet.
Event #20 marked the third largest Pot Limit Omaha in WSOP history at 885 players. Accordingly, Barch was quite elated to take home a bracelet in the rapidly growing poker genre. He told WSOP officials on Saturday night, “It’s nice to have one. It really is. We were talking earlier that we miss the old Horseshoe. But here, the tournaments are definitely deeper and harder to get through. I think it will be much harder for people to win multiple bracelets in the future.”
Despite not having a bracelet until Saturday, Barch owns nearly $3 million in career WSOP earnings. His third place finish in the $10,000 buy-in Main Event five years ago was worth $2.5 million and, all told, he’s reached three WSOP final tables. Here’s how the field shook out:
1. John “Tex” Barch – $256,919
2. Klinghammer Thibaut – $158,698
3. Trai Dang – $102,306
4. Nenad Medic – $74,946
5. Ashkan Razavi – $55,711
6. Chris Hyong Chang – $41,971
7. Blair Rodman – $32,007
8. Tyler Patterson – $24,695
9. Denton Pfister – $19,259
Also reaching a conclusion yesterday was Event #21, $1,500 Seven Card Stud. Richard Ashby became the third U.K. native to take home a bracelet at the 2010 WSOP, joining Praz Bansi and James “Flushy” Dempsey. On his proficiency in the age old game of Stud, Ashby commented to WSOP staff, “Stud was actually the first game I started playing. I’ve been playing it a very long time. There is a tournament in Baden (Germany) that I won earlier this year. I have been running very well in Stud lately.”
Christine Pietsch missed out on being the first female WSOP bracelet winner of 2010. Pietsch cashed for $86,000 and would have become the 16th woman to win an open WSOP event. Women have been shut out of an open event’s bracelet ceremony since 2008, when PokerStars North American Poker Tour (NAPT) Mohegan Sun Main Event winner Vanessa Selbst found gold.
Three acclaimed online poker players – Titan Poker’s Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi, PokerStars’ Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin, and poker author Jon “PearlJammer” Turner – took sixth, seventh, and eighth, respectively, in Event #21:
1. Richard Ashby – $140,467
2. Christine Pietsch – $86,756
3. Darren Shebell – $55,955
4. Dan Heimiller – $40,544
5. Owais Ahmed – $29,809
6. Sorel “Imper1um” Mizzi – $22,235
7. Pat “TorontoToro” Pezzin – $16,826
8. Jon “PearlJammer” Turner – $12,916
Finally, the Ladies No Limit Hold’em Championship has played down to its final table. Sidsel Boesen leads the way with a stack of 789,000, well ahead of American Kami Chisholm’s second place tally of 529,000. There are no bracelet winners in the surviving nine, who will duke it out for a $192,000 top prize.
Among those who cashed in the Ladies Event were Bodog pro Evelyn Ng, Poker News Daily Guest Columnist Linda Johnson, 2008 Ladies champ Svetlana Gromenkova, “Amazing Race” contestant Maria Ho, and Bluff reporter Jessica Welman. The final table will take to the felts today with the following chip stacks:
1. Sidsel Boesen – 789,000
2. Kami Chisholm – 529,000
3. Timmi Derosa – 437,000
4. Anne Whalen – 344,000
5. Holly Hodge – 279,000
6. Vanessa Hellebuyck – 277,000
7. Bonnie Overfield – 226,000
8. La Sengphet – 206,000
9. Loren Watterworth – 75,000
No new events begin on Sunday. Instead, Day 1B of the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event (#24) will fire up at Noon PT. Keep it tuned to Poker News Daily for the latest 2010 WSOP headlines.
