German online poker pro Johannes Becker (27), fresh from the disappointment of no cash in a $100,000 high roller event, has triumphed in the World Series of Poker event 8 – a $2,500 buy-in Mixed Triple Draw Lowball competition which attracted the likes of Mike Leah, Bryce Yockey, Chris Ferguson, Frank Kassela, Brian Hastings, Nam Le, Billy Baxter, John Monnette, Dan Shak, Mike Wattel, Shaun Deeb and Randy Ohel.
A total of 321 entries created a total prize pool of $722,250 that enabled 49 players to make the money. The competition comprised rotating rounds of three lowball triple-draw variants – ace-to-five, deuce-to-seven, and Badugi.
Bekker left his run quite late, starting the last day of action with one of the lowest chip stacks, but he made up for it going into the final table to end up in the finale heads up against accomplished poker pro Scott Seiver (33).
But it was Bekker’s day, and his skill and aggression along with good cards enabled him to eliminate Seiver for the runner-up’s $111,516.
Bekker’s $180,455 pay day was a long way removed from his best yet scores of $862,649 after he finished second to Elior Sion last year in the $50,000 buy-in Poker Player’s Championship; his Euro 500,000 win in the Euro 25,000 buy-in High Roller, or this year’s Euro 320,000 win in the High Roller in the Czech Republic, but it certainly helps pay the bills and travel costs.
The other final table cashes were:
3. Jesse Hampton – $71,547
4. Chris Vitch – $47,166
5. George Trigeorgis – $31,973
6. Luis Velador – $22,334