Three more winners emerge during the weekend
Dung Nguyen won event 38, Jan-Peter Jachtmann event 39 and Ronnie Bardah event 40 of this year’s World Series of Poker as the tournament enters the final stage after almost two-thirds of the competition have successfully passed.
$1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em competition main prize went to Nguyen who subsequently stated that he had not even intended to join the competition, but had been persuaded to do so by a friend who paid half the buy-in. Nguyen won his first bracelet and the reward of $607,200.
The field was entered by 2,533 hopefuls to see the final table gathering players such as Theo Tran, Bahman Jahanguiri, Blair Hinkle, David Pham, Kristijonas Andrulis, Zachary Korik, Jeffrey Manza and Tyler Patterson.
Bahman Jahanguiri was sent home with a third prize of $267,241 to open the heads-up battle where Nguyen faced experienced WSOP veteran Theo Tran. Nguyen maintained a chip lead throughout the game to beat the disappointed Tran whose runner up pay-out of $377,565 represents his second time heads-up defeat in four final tables with not a single winners bracelet yet achieved.
Event 39 – $10,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha championship was marked by the victory of Jan-Peter Jachtmann, the German poker magazine publisher and amateur pokerhead, who bested poker pro Andrew Brown in the heads up. The event was entered by 293 players, quite a few of which were well-known to the WSOP audience.
Jachtmann won the event in a rather stylish manner, completing the final table and heads up in mere three hours to take home his first WSOP bracelet and the noteworthy first prize check for $661,000. The winner said he came over from Germany specifically for the event since POL was his favourite game which he regularly played for cash back home.
Among the entrants that Jachtmann survived in the event were Ville Wahlbeck, Jason Mercier, Sammy Farha, Andrew Brown, Steven Silverman, Micah Smith, Andy Seth, Benjamin Sage, Nikolai Yakovenko, Jason Mercier and Joe Kushner.
In heads-up battle Jachtmann faced Andrew Brown, a 30-year-old New York internet and tournament pro well-known for his notable career earnings and a talent for PLO. It seemed as if the long battle would ensue as Jachtmann had the chip advantage but both players held large stacks.
Jachtmann managed to stage a spectacular win against a very worthy opponent in two huge hands with some close calls for the two fearless and aggressive players. Brown left the field with $408,393 second prize, which turned out to be his biggest career win yet.
Event 40 – $2,500 buy-in Limit Hold’em Six Handed main prize and winners bracelet went to Ronnie Bardah, Massachusetts poker professional player. This is his first World Series of Poker bracelet, and his biggest career cash of $182,088 yet.
Bardah survived a field of 302 entrants to reach the final table and the heads up with Marco Johnson, a 26-year-old Californian internet and live tournament pro, well known after his contribution in revealing the Absolute Poker scandal. Bardah held a more than 3 to 1 advantage which proved insurmountable for his opponent.
Johnson received a second prize of $112,525 in the event were other players earned following amounts:
Vincent Gironda 3rd Place ($73,040)
Brent Wheeler $48,828
Sorel Mizzi $33,541
Hans Minocha $23,648