Two veteran players well respected on the WSOP scene, Brit Barney Boatman of the Hendon Mob and Californian pro Brandon Wong, cracked their first World Series of Poker bracelets – at last – over the weekend, besting large fields to win major prizes.
In event 49, a $1,500 buy-in NLHE tournament, 58-year-old British pro Barney Boatman was clearly delighted to win after well over a decade of attending the annual WSOP festival and achieving 24 cashes but no bracelet.
This time he made no mistake, despite having to fight his way through an entry field of 2,246 players, many of them big names in the international game, who generated a prize pool of $3,033,450.
It was worth the effort – after three days of tough poker Boatman was able to claim his first bracelet and the $546,080 main prize, watched by his brother Ross and a slew of loudly cheering Brit supporters.
The final table in the event saw Boatman pitted against Brian O’Donoghue, Van Tran, Taras Kripps, Aditya Prasetyo, Robin Ylitalo, Paul Dasilva, Noah Sandler and Roger Lussier.
Down to three handed play, Tran, O’Donohue and Boatman struggled for the lead for just on 30 hands before Tran was dismissed at third for $239,339, opening the way to the heads up between O’Donohue and Boatman with the chip counts almost even.
It was a final confrontation that was to last for almost 175 hands before Boatman managed to eliminate his talented and never-say-die opponent.
O’Donohue’s second placing was worth $338,745.
Brandon Wong, a 38-year-old pro player from Fresno, California, has similarly found that WSOP bracelets have in the past eluded him, the most recent earlier this year when he was runner up to Phil Ivey in an APAC epic. Wong has previously had the frustration of 21 cashes at WSOP – two of them as runner-up – but no cigar.
But this time around, event 50 – a $2,500 buy-in Six-Handed 10-Game Mix at last delivered his first WSOP bracelet and the $220,061 first-place prize.
372 entries were recorded for the event, building a prize pool of $846,300; among the players were pros like Scott Fischman, Freddy Deeb, Gavin Smith, Scotty Nguyen, Robert Williamson III, Marcel Luske, Shawn Buchanan, Vanessa Selbst, Greg Raymer, Scott Abrams, Bruno Fitoussi, Mike Wattel, Loren Klein and Tom McCormick, with Abrams and Klein both making the final table.
It was an America vs. Britain heads up when Wong faced Sebastian Saffari, with Wong holding a small chip advantage which he was able to leverage into such a lead that Saffari’s exit with runner-up money of $135,932 became inevitable.
Other final table pay-outs were:
Philip Sternheimer $87,397
Christopher George $57,954
Scott Abrams $39,564
Loren Klein $27,792