Two more results from the 50th Anniversary World Series of Poker with David Lambard beating a star-studded final table in the $3,000 Shootout, and Upeshka Da Silva winning his third bracelet in the $600 Online No-Limit Hold’em Knockout Bounty.
Susan Jeffers once wrote an excellent book called ‘Feel The Fear And do it Anyway,’ and I think David Lambard may have read it.
The 44-year-old has been playing live cash games in California professionally since he was 34, so he knows a wizard or too when he sees one, and after reaching the final table of Event #36: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout, Lambard saw wands “everywhere.”
Unperturbed, and confident in his game, Lambard went on to conquer, including beating three former World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winners, including the man who has won more money playing live tournaments than anyone, alive or dead.
313-entrants created an $845,100 prize pool, and Lambard banked $207,193 in his first live tournament win.
“I just went with it; I just had a feel,” Lambard told PokerNews after his win. “I am kind of an instinct player, and these guys are pretty robotic and know the whole matrix. I came with my own style. The only way to win a tournament is to have no fear.”
Let’s get to those three former bracelet winners I mentioned.
Andrew Lichtenberger won his bracelet in 2016, topping a field of 1,125-entrants in a $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em event for $569,158. His fourth-place finish in this one was his second Shootout final table after finishing runner-up to Peter Traply in a $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout event back in 2009. It’s been a cracking series for ‘LuckyChewy’ after finishing runner-up to Ben Heath in the $50,000 High Roller for $917,232.
Alex Papazian earned his bracelet the hard way after beating 8,120-entrants to take the $888 No-Limit Hold’em Crazy Eights title and $888,888 in prize money back in 2017. Papazian had won $1.3m after winning a €25,000 High Roller at the European Poker Tour (EPT) in Monte Carlo a year earlier.
The three-time bracelet winner and All-Time Money Leader, Justin Bonomo also made the final table despite leaving earliest of them all. It was Bonomo’s sixth final table of 2019, and his sixth ITM finish in a Shootout event with this his deepest run.
And then you had Martin Zamani who has never won a bracelet but came close after finishing fourth in the $600 Online Pot-Limit Omaha (PLO) event. Zamani also won a $25,000 at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure (PCA) in January for $895,110.
All four of these wizards were capable of generating the type of turbulence that blows lesser men to the rail, but Lambard was like a rock, making it through to the heads-up stage where he defeated the Frenchman, Johan Guilbert, with an assured performance.
Final table results
1. David Lambard – $207,193
2. Johan Guilbert – $128,042
3. Weiyi Zhang – $92,625
4. Andrew Lichtenberger – $67,706
5. Jan Lakota – $50,016
6. Ben Farrell – $37,341
7. Alexandru Papazian – $28,182
8. Adrien Delmas – $21,501
9. Martin Zamani – $16,586
10. Justin Bonomo – $12,937
Three supermen who donned their red capes and flew deep into this one were the high stakes phenom, Dario Sammartino (11th), the Australian mixed game specialist, James Obst (13th) and GreySnowPoker’s new ambassador, Rainer Kempe (16th).
Upeshka De Silva wins Event #38: $600 Online No-Limit Hold’em Knockout Bounty
From a tournament that lasted three days to one that squeezed the action into less than 12-hours, and Upeshka De Silva took down the 1,224-entrant $600 Online No-Limit Hold’em Knockout Bounty event to capture his third bracelet.
Bracelet #1 came in 2015 when De Silva beat 1,655-entrants, including Dara O’Kearney, heads-up, to win the $424,577 first prize in a $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em event. One became two in 2017 when De Silva beat 369-entrants to win a $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout for $229,923.
The win sees De Silva overtake Daniel Zack at the top of the 2019 WSOP Player of the Year Leaderboard having cashed six times, including two final tables after finishing 3/754 in the $3,00 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed.
Final table results
1. Upeshka “gomezhamburg” De Silva – $98,262.72
2. David ‘dave419’ Nodes – $60,092.28
3. David ‘davidas777’ Fhima – $42,962
4. Gerard ‘Pretabotones’ Carbo – $31,065
5. Renato’Turko’ Ribeiro – $22,748
6. Yotam ‘p.bateman’ Shmuelov – $16,854
7. Chris ‘johnsonck’ Johnson – $12,668
8. Joseph ‘B3ndTheKnee’ Liberta – $9,584
Three more high flyers who set off air raid sirens in this thing were the former Aussie Millions Main Event Final Tablist, Kristy Gazes (10th), bracelet winners, Kyle Cartwright (17th) and Kyle Bowker (25th).
