Another round-up of news from the World Series of Poker as Frankie O’Dell sets a new Omaha record, Eli Elezra wins his fourth bracelet, and Josh Pollock wins his first.
Bristol is an English city, home to Portishead and Massive Attack, the mother and father of trip-hop, and also Muntjac Deer, recently spotted more frequently in the inner city.
Muntjac Deer don’t come into the inner city to listen to trip-hop. They bounce into town because of the variety of nosh. Nosh is slang for food or fellatio. Muntjac deer don’t get into fellatio because their antlers get in the way.
Since the war, humans have hunted wolves to extinction in the UK, and because we are a civilised society, we don’t let too many people roam around armed like a Clint Eastwood’s Joe, so the Muntjac deer don’t have many predators hence the confidence.
The Muntjac Deer is a mammal, and another type of mammal displaying the same levels of confidence is a human called Frankie O’Dell. The difference between O’Dell and the Muntjac Deer, antlers apart, is that O’Dell, despite having more predators that the Deer, is a rare breed; only emerging occasionally, but when he does, watch out.
O’Dell made history at the 50th Anniversary World Series of Poker (WSOP) after winning Event #18: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship to become the only player to have won three bracelets in this derivative.
The game attracted 183-entrants, and a $1,720,200 prize pool, and O’Dell’s victory sees his live tournament earnings rocket to $2.9m. O’Dell wins live tournaments with the efficacy of cockroaches evading death – 36 at the last count.
As you would expect in a Championship event, players with bats in their belltowers were a rarity at the final table. Owais Ahmed won a bracelet in a $2,500 version of this event in 2011. Robert Mizrachi has won four bracelets, and one of them came in a $1,500 version of this event in 2015. Jake Schwartz was making his second final table of the series after finishing sixth in the $2,500 Limit Mixed Triple Draw event. David Benyamine won this event in 2008. And the reigning Player of the Year, Shaun Deeb won the $25,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High Roller last year.
The $443,641 that O’Dell earned after hypnotising those geniuses with his old school brand of poker is not even his personal best score. That came in the World Poker Tour (WPT) Season V Championship for finishing runner-up to Joe Pelton for $776,375.
Final table results
1. Frankie O’Dell – $443,641
2. Owais Ahmed – $274,192
3. Robert Mizrachi – $194,850
4. Nick Guagenti – $140,522
5. Robert Campbell – $102,868
6. Jake Schwartz – $76,456
7. David Benyamine – $57,709
8. Ed Vartughian – $44,245
Three other players who ran deep in this one but failed to avoid the electric chair were bracelet winners, Ken Aldridge (10th), Richard Ashby (14th) and Mike Matusow (15th).
Eli Elezra wins event #20: $1,500 Seven Card Stud
Eli Elezra stuck a smiley face in the middle of his 2019 Annus Horribilis Yearbook by winning his fourth gold bracelet in Event #20: $1,500 Seven Card Stud.
The Israeli star hunted and destroyed a field of 285-entrants including some fantastic players who made it to the final table. Scott Seiver finished runner-up to David Chiu in a $2,500 Seven Card Stud bracelet event in 2013 and has two bracelets and $23.5m in earnings. Rep Porter and David Singer have five bracelets between them, and Anthony Zinno is a former bracelet winner and WPT Player of the Year.
“When we went to Cabo, I told my buddies, I’m gonna win a bracelet this year, and I’m gonna win it in stud,” Elezra told PokerNews after his win.
In January, Elezra released his autobiography ‘Pulling The Trigger’ at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA), and the marketing of the book made him feel like a patient sitting in the dentist’s chair awaiting a root canal minus the knockout punch when the likes of Cole South and Abe Mosseri questioned Elezra’s integrity over unpaid debts.
This win, his third bracelet in Stud, was his tenth live tournament victory, with Elezra preferring to ply his trade in live cash games. All told, Elezra has won $3.76m playing live tournaments, and this was his first bracelet win since taking down this event back in 2015.
Valentin Vornicu also deserves a sentence after the World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) crusher finished third, his deepest run in a WSOP bracelet event.
Final table results
1. Eli Elezra – $93,766
2. Anthony Zinno – $57,951
3. Valentin Vornicu – $39,830
4. Phongthep Thiptinnakon – $27,993
5. Rep Porter – $19,996
6. David Singer – $14,619
7. Joshua Mountain – $10,920
8. Scott Seiver – $8,337
Three more players who slid across the frozen lake of this thing only for their little piece of ice to melt at a crucial time were the three-time bracelet winner, Barry Greenstein (14th), partypoker ambassador, Ludovic Geilich (17th), and six-time bracelet winner, Jeff Lisandro (31st).
Josh Pollock wins event #24: ONLINE Pot-Limit Omaha 6-Handed
Jackson Pollock was a mover and a shaker in the abstract expressionism movement, and Josh Pollock used to be a member of the abstract WSOP bracelet in the trophy cabinet club – until yesterday.
After 13-gruelling hours on the old Maximus Gluteus, Josh “loofa” Pollock won the second of nine online bracelets after topping a final table that included the likes of Jared Bleznick, Martin Zamani, and the man with one of the most admired set of abstract antlers in the business, Phil Galfond.
The event attracted 652-entrants.
Final table results
1. Josh “loofa” Pollock – $139,740
2. Jason “TheBigGift” Gooch – $85,560
3. Jared “jerbronlames1” Bleznick – $59,163
4. Martin “BathroomLine” Zamani – $41,565
5. Phil “HeyGuys” Galfond – $29,680
6. Chris “babycow” Back – $21,538
7. Jack “FlushStr8ted” Shea – $15,956
