2013 WSOP: Canada, WSOP Player of the Year Winners Enjoy More Success
Erick Lindgren and Jeff Madsen became the latest former WSOP Player of the Year winners to earn bracelets in 2013, joining Daniel Negreanu and Tom Schneider (Photos: Eddie Malluk/WSOP)
Ten more WSOP bracelets have been awarded over the past five days, and so it’s time again to report the winners and share a few details from each of the events. The success of Canadian players remains a frequent topic of discussion in the halls of the Rio, as the country has now increased its bracelet total to nine. Also, former WSOP Player of the Year winners are winning again this summer, with two more of them — Erick Lindgren and Jeff Madsen — claiming bracelets.
Event #32 ($5,000 NLHE 6-max.): Lindgren Continues Comeback
Not far removed from a BLUFF magazine feature describing his huge gambling debts and efforts both to settle them and deal with a self-confessed gambling problem, Erick Lindgren added another major cash in 2013 by winning his second career WSOP bracelet in the $5K no-limit hold’em 6-max. event.
The 2008 WSOP Player of the Year topped a field of 516 players to win the title and $606,317 first prize, just one month after earning a $650,275 payday for finishing second at the $25K WPT World Championship at the Bellagio. Lindgren’s career tourney earnings are now approaching the $10 million-mark, although as the BLUFF article detailed, the former Full Tilt red pro is likely still in the red.
The final table included Lee Markholt (runner-up), Jonathan Little (third), and Ryan D’Angelo (sixth), with Andrew Robl, Allen Bari, and Dan Smith just missing making the final six in what was one of the tougher fields of the Series thus far.
Event #33 ($2,500 Razz): Campanello Captures Title
Bryan Campanello outlasted mixed game specialist David Bach heads-up to win his first WSOP bracelet in the $2,500 razz event last Thursday. The 21-year-old bested a field of 301 to win the title and $178,052 first prize.
Among the names near the top of the payouts page was seven-time WSOP bracelet winner Billy Baxter who took 24th. A Poker Hall of Famer, all seven of Baxter’s bracelets have come in lowball events.
The turnout held steady for this one, down just a few from the 309 who played the $2,500 Razz event last year in which Phil Hellmuth won his 13th WSOP bracelet. It appeared amid increasing talk of the relative lack of non-hold’em events at the WSOP as well as debates over buy-ins, with some suggesting the higher desirability of both low buy-in events ($1,000 and $1,500) and higher ones ($5,000 and above), as opposed to the $2,500 price tag.
Event #34: ($1,000 Turbo NLHE): Gathy Gathers Gold
A new format that has been tried with success elsewhere was introduced at the WSOP in Event #34, a $1K buy-in “turbo” event that saw 1,629 players race through a tourney that began with four 30-minute levels, then played 40-minute levels for the next 13, then finally settled into the usual one-hour levels after that.
Playing out in just two days, it was Michael Gathy winning a second bracelet for Belgium this summer in Event #34, joining his countryman Davidi Kitai in the 2013 WSOP winner’s circle after Kitai took down Event #19, the $5K PLHE event.
Two more Canadians made the final table, including Event #18 ($1,500 NLHE) winner Jason Duval who finished sixth. 2005 WSOP Ladies Champion and actress Jennifer Tilly finished 13th.
Event #35 ($3,000 PLO): Madsen Makes It Three
There was another blast from the past (relatively speaking) in Event #35 in which 2006 WSOP Player of the Year Jeff Madsen won the $3,000 pot-limit Omaha tournament to pick up his third career bracelet and a $384,420 first prize.
Madsen topped a field of 640 and final table that included another multiple-bracelet winner, Scott Clements, who finished fifth. Event #27 ($3,000 Mixed Max NLHE) winner Isaac Hagerling (10th), Ashton Griffin (13th), and Mike Sexton (16th) among those just missing making the final nine.
Madsen became the fourth former WSOP Player of the Year to win a bracelet in 2013, following 2004 winner Daniel Negreanu (who won the WSOP Asia Pacific Main Event), 2007 winner Tom Schneider (who has won two H.O.R.S.E. events this summer), and 2008 winner Erick Lindgren.
Event #36 ($1,500 NLHE Shootout): Naydenov Gets Bulgaria on Bracelet Board
Simeon Naydenov of Sofia, Bulgaria won the $1,500 no-limit hold’em shootout event after having earlier made the final table of another NLHE shootout event (Event #9, with a $3K buy-in) and gone out first in 10th. Naydenov earned $326,440 for his victory.
There were 1,194 entries in the event, a few more than the 1,138 who played it in 2012. The final table was the most international of the summer, with only four Americans and six other countries represented (Bulgaria, Germany, Argentina, Canada, the Czech Republic, and the United Kingdom).
Event #37 ($5,000 LHE): Long-time WSOP Player Moore Earns Victory
The 63-year-old Michael Moore won the title in Event #37, the second of three fixed-limit hold’em events on this year’s schedule. Just 170 entered the event (after 166 played last year), with Moore earning $211,743 for his win. A participant at the WSOP for many years, Moore finished 10th in the Main Event way back in 1995.
Three former fixed-limit hold’em bracelet winners were among those making the final table — Ronnie Bardah (who finished third), Todd Witteles (who finished fifth), and Greg Mueller (who finished eighth), with Mueller making his third WSOP final table this summer. Additionally, both runner-up finisher Gabriel Nassif and Dom Denotaristefani (who finished sixth) have made WSOP fixed-limit final tables in the past.
Event #38 ($2,500 NLHE 4-max.): Ontario’s Oliver Wins
Justin Oliver became the eighth Canadian bracelet winner this summer — and the first of two from Canada to win bracelets on Sunday — when the Ontario-based player took down the four-handed $2,500 buy-in no-limit hold’em event, outlasting a final table of Nick Schwarmann (second), Jared Jaffee (third), and David Pham (fourth) to win the title and $309,071 first prize. Five-time bracelet winner John Juanda bubbled the four-handed final table, finishing fifth.
The four-handed format made its debut in 2012, with 750 players turning out for the $2,500 buy-in event. This year that number fell to just 566 entries.
Event #39 ($1,500 Stud/8): Idema Wins Second
Just a couple of hours after Oliver’s win, Dan Idema of Vancouver took a ninth bracelet for Canada in the $1,500 seven-card stud hi-low event. The win earned Idema $184,590 and marked his second WSOP victory, his first coming in 2011 in the $10,000 LHE Championship.
Two more Canadians were at the final table — Mike Leah (who finished fifth) and Tony Gill (who finished sixth) — as was the colorful septuagenarian Artie Cobb, a four-time WSOP bracelet winner who has been cashing at the Series since 1976. Linda Johnson just missed the final table by finishing in ninth.
The nine bracelets won by players from Canada this summer now triples last year’s total of three. (As mentioned above, Negreanu of Canada also won a bracelet at the WSOP APAC Main Event.)
Event #40 ($1,500 NLHE): Hamby Wins First
On Monday night, online star Jared Hamby won the fifth $1,500 NLHE (full ring, freezeout, non-guaranteed prize pool) tourney of the summer, earning $522,272 for his first WSOP bracelet win. South America players was well represented at this final table by fourth-place finisher Nico Fierro of Chile, fifth-place finisher Joao Neto of Brazil, and seventh-place finisher Richard Dubini of Argentina.
The event saw 2,161 enter, marking the largest turnout of the five $1,500 NLHE events this summer. In 2012 the turnouts for these events were on average considerably higher, with the lowest being 2,101 entrants.
Event #41 ($5,000 PLO 6-max.): Breakthrough Live Score for Gross
Early this morning the $5,000 buy-in, short-handed pot-limit Omaha came to a close with another longtime online star, Steve “gboro780” Gross, earning the win after carrying the lead into Day 2, losing it during the day but gaining it back three-handed, then mostly dominating heads-up versus runner-up Salman Behbehani to take the bracelet. It was Behbehani’s second final table of the summer after taking eighth in the
The win marked Gross’s first ever major live victory aside from a prelim win at the 2010 PCA, with the $488. Prior to Black Friday, the American player had been ranked as the #1 online player in the world by various sites and publications, including winning Card Player‘s Online Poker Player of the Year in 2009. While he’d won millions online, the $488,817 first prize represents more than half of Gross’s total tourney winnings entering the event.
Exactly 400 entered the tournament, down slightly from the 419 who played a year ago. Yevgeniy Timoshenko (7th) and Sorel Mizzi (16th) both made Day 3 but came up shy of the final table.
COMMENTS