OVERVIEW
Sometimes, a
single moment in time has a monumental impact on the outcome of something that
is far bigger and greater.
For Aaron
Steury that special moment came in the most recent World Series of Poker
competition, when play was down to just three finalists. Facing tough fellow poker pro Adam Friedman
in what turned out to be the
game-changing hand of the tournament, Steury was dealt a speculative hand with
interesting possibilities. But five blanks
hit the board, and it turned out that he missed his straight draw. Steury was essentially left with nothing more
than queen-high in his hand.
For
99.9999999999999 percent of all poker players reading this, that’s normally an
instant-fold situation. Virtually every
card in the universe under the circumstances would hit the muck. The pot would get pushed the other direction,
and a new poker hand would be dealt. The
hand would pretty much be forgotten.
But Steury
noticed something odd. Things just
didn’t seem right with surrendering a huge pot so easily. What sparked his skeptical inquisition at
that moment in time isn’t quite clear and perhaps can’t even be calculated by
mere mortals. When Friedman decided to
bet the river, Steury thought long and hard and then ended up making what
virtually every observer would later describe as a “sick call.”
Media outlet
Poker News called it “Kreskin-like.”
Friedman
looked up. He shook his head in
disbelief. Then, his proverbial jaw
dropped to the ground, choreographed in perfect unison with a hundred gasps in
the crowd that witnessed one of the boldest final table calls of the year at
the WSOP.
When Friedman
showed dejection at the call, Steury instantly knew he was right and he had
made the perfect read. As it turned out,
Friedman too had missed his straight draw – albeit with two lower-ranked
cards. Steury may have only had “queen
high,” but he turned up his cards with the confidence of a conqueror who had
out-analyzed, out-foxed, and as it turned out, outplayed a very strong opponent. He might as well have been tabling a royal
flush.
The final
table played on for another 90 minutes.
But the outcome was really decided then
and there.
Buoyed with self-confidence,
Steury could do no wrong. From that
moment forward, he knew he could trust his reads and inner instincts. To a successful poker player, this is the jet
fuel that rockets dreams into reality.
It’s the victory switch.
On it
went. As for his final two unfortunate
opponents, the duo might as well have been playing poker with their hole cards
exposed. Facing an opponent who’s in
what’s called “the zone,” and has just revealed the uncanny ability to make
startlingly accurate reads is as deflating to the player on the opposite end of
the table as is the aura of confidence that surrounds the poker superman.
Thirty or so
hands later, it was all over.
Aaron Steury
was a WSOP champion.
Steury won
the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Championship, held at the Rio in Las Vegas. The three-day tournament attracted 963
players, a near-record for any Mixed Game format.
Steury is a
24-year-old poker pro and self-described grinder, from Fort Wayne, IN. He came into this year’s WSOP with eight
previous WSOP cashes. His best showing
had been a 14th-place finish in the $5,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. Championship,
played in 2009. But this triumph trumped
everything he'd done before and paid out nearly three times the combined figure
that he earned up to this point. Steury
received $289,283 in prize money for this victory. But the real treasure he collected was
priceless – his first WSOP gold bracelet.
The final
table was played on the same ESPN main stage that hosted the John Juanda-Phil
Hellmuth showdown the night before.
While the finalists' names in this tournament might not have been quite
as familiar, the level of competition was just as intense, the caliber of play
was just as strong, and the final outcome was just as thrilling. At least, Aaron Steury would agree.
The runner up
was Michael Chow, from Honolulu, HI. He
won last year's $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low Split event. This time he took second place, which paid
$178,691.
Several
former gold bracelet winners cashed in this event – including Denis Ethier
(6th), David Bach (14th), Todd Brunson (19th), Eli Elezra (21st), Farzad
Rouhani (25th), Ken Aldridge (30th), Layne Flack (48th), Lyle Berman (49th),
Max Pescatori (52nd), Cyndy Violette (55th), Ryan Hughes (58th), Svetlana
Gromenkova (69th), Allen Bari (78th), Ivo Donev (83rd) and David Chiu (93rd).
H.O.R.S.E. is
an acronym for five of the most popular poker games played inside American card
rooms today. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments
include a rotation of the following games – Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split,
Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split (also called
Eight-or-Better). Many purists consider
H.O.R.S.E. to be the ultimate test of poker skill, since it requires that
players play all games well in order to win.
For a complete
statistical recap of Event #17, please visit WSOP.com HERE.
EVENT #17 CHAMPION
– AARON STEURY
The 2011
World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. champion is Aaron Steury, from
Fort Wayne, IN.
Steury is a
24-year-old professional poker player.
Steury was
born in his hometown of Fort Wayne.
Steury attended
college for three years, but he did not graduate. Steury attended Indiana-Purdue University
Fort Wayne (IPFW). He majored in
business. He plans to return and finish
his degree at some point.
Steury’s
parents were not initially pleased with their son’s decision to play poker professionally. But he has now been successful for four years
and they have come to support his career choice. Steury added that this WSOP gold bracelet
victory will likely bring more encouragement from his family
Steury was
primarily an online poker player up until recent events that now threaten his
livelihood. He played in high-stakes
cash games and multi-table tournaments.
This was the
fourth consecutive year Steury has attended the WSOP in Las Vegas.
Steury’s
previous live poker tournament results include eight WSOP cashes and a
third-place finish in an event at the WSOP Circuit held the first year at
Horseshoe Hammond (Chicago).
For this
victory in this tournament, Steury collected $289,283 for first place.
According to
official records, Steury now has 1 win, 1 final table appearance, and 9
in-the-money finishes at the WSOP.
Steury currently
has $369,663 in career WSOP winnings.
Steury is to
be regarded as a professional poker player, since he has been playing full-time
for the past four years.
WINNER QUOTES
(Note: The winner was interviewed at
tableside moments after the victory)
On the
implications of Black Friday on his livelihood as a poker pro and decision to
attend the WSOP: “I was coming here
anyway. Since I was 21, I have come here
all four years.”
On the level
of competition he faced in this H.O.R.S.E. event: “This
is one of the softest WSOP fields. There
are a lot of people who do not know what they are doing. As you would expect, Day One was easier, then
Day Two got a bit tougher, and then Day Three was very tough. There were two gold bracelet winners, and
David Baker, and Adam Friedman who are all good players.”
On the “sick
call” where he made an uncanny read versus Adam Friedman: “I thought there was a pretty good chance I
had the best hand……I was right and I was confident the rest of the
tournament. I was spot on. That was the turning point.”
THE FINAL
TABLE
The official
final table was comprised eight players.
The final
table contained two former gold bracelet winners – Denis Ethier (1 win) and
David Chow (1 win).
Only two
nations were represented at the final table – including Italy (1 player), and
the United States (7 players).
When play
began, the final table chip leader was Adam Friedman. The starting chips counts were as follows:
Adam Friedman
– 1,006,000 in chips
Michael Chow
– 907,000 in chips
Aaron Steury
– 757,000 in chips
Ron Ware – 507,000
in chips
David Baker –
455,000 in chips
Jonathan
Tamayo – 450,000 in chips
Denis Ethier –
139,000 in chips
Paolo
Compagno – 123,000 in chips
When heads-up
play began, Steury had a chip lead of slightly more than 4-to-1.
The
runner up was Michael Chow, from Honolulu, HI.
He is a 35-year-old poker pro.
Chow won last year’s $1,500 buy-in Omaha High-Low event. This time, he took second place and earned $178,691.
The
third-place finisher was Adam Friedman, from Gahanna, OH. He enjoyed a breakthrough year in poker back
in 2005, when he took 43rd in the WSOP Main Event Championship. Friedman became a minor celebrity, as he was
utterly devastated by his elimination.
Friedman let all his emotions out, with ESPN cameras rolling and became
one of the more memorable “agony of defeat” poster boys of the World Series of
Poker that year. Many observers thought
this might finally be Friedman’s moment and redemption. But his ultimate triumph and moment of glory
will have to wait a bit longer.
An
odd coincidence – Freidman is a graduate of Indiana University. The winner attended Indiana University for
one year.
The
fourth-place finisher was former gold bracelet winner Jonathan Tamayo, from
Humble, TX. He previously won the
$2,000 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split event at the 2005 WSOP.
The
fifth-place finisher was Ron Ware, best-known in the poker world as
“Grumpy.” He is a poker pro from
Discovery Bay, CA.
The
sixth-place finisher was former gold bracelet winner Denis Ethier, from Las
Vegas, NV. He previously won the $2,000
buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split event at the 2005 WSOP.
The
seventh-place finisher was David Baker, from Kenner, LA. This marked his fifth time to cash at the
WSOP, including an in-the-money finish at last year’s WSOP. Note: He is not the same David Baker who has a gold
bracelet win.
The
eighth-place finisher was Paolo Compagno, from Campione, Italy. Compagno is one of a growing number of Italian
players enjoying increasing success at the WSOP.
Final table play
began at 7:45 pm on a Sunday afternoon.
Play ended at 2:05 am Monday evening.
The finale went about 6 hours and 20 minutes.
The final
table was played on ESPN’s Main Stage. The
new final table set is getting raves in terms of design and appearance. No stage in the history of poker has ever
looked as spectacular.
Action was
streamed live over WSOP.com. Viewers can
tune in and watch most of this year’s final tables. Although hole cards are not shown, viewers
can follow an overhead camera as well as a pan-shot of the table. The floor announcer provides an official
account of the action.
OTHER
IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS
The top 96 finishers
collected prize money.
The defending
champion was Konstantin Puchkov, from Moscow, Russia. He did not cash this year.
Several former
gold bracelet winners cashed in this event – including Denis Ethier (6th),
David Bach (14th), Todd Brunson (19th), Eli Elezra (21st),
Farzad Rouhani (25th), Ken Aldridge (30th), Layne Flack
(48th), Lyle Berman (49th), Max Pescatori (52nd),
Cyndy Violette (55th), Ryan Hughes (58th), Svetlana
Gromenkova (69th), Allen Bari (78th), Ivo Donev (83rd),
and David Chiu (93rd).
Just missing
the official final table by one spot was Victor Ramdin, a well-known and
widely-respected pro. Although Ramdin
has performed well in other tournaments worldwide, remarkably he has yet to
make a WSOP final table during his career.
Finishing one spot from the final table had to be a disappointment to
Ramdin. However, one expects it’s just a
matter of time before things go Ramdin’s way.
Tournament
results are to be included in the WSOP official records. Results are also to be included in the 2011
WSOP “Player of the Year” race.
“WSOP Player
of the Year” standings can be found at WSOP.com HERE.
At the time
of this report, the current leader in the WSOP “Player of the Year” standings
is Amir Lehavot. He holds a slight lead
over Viacheslav Zhukov, who is in second place.
ODDS AND ENDS
This is the 910th
gold bracelet awarded in World Series of Poker history. This figure includes every official WSOP
event ever played, including tournaments during the early years when there were
no actual gold bracelets awarded. It
also includes the 16 gold bracelets awarded to date at WSOP Europe (2007-2010). Moreover for the first time ever, one gold
bracelet was awarded for this year’s winner of the WSOP Circuit National
Championship.
The official
WSOP gold bracelet ceremony takes place on the day following the winner’s
victory (or some hours later when the tournament ends very late). The ceremony takes place inside The Pavilion,
which is the expansive main tournament room hosting all noon starts this
year. The ceremony begins at the
conclusion of the first break of the noon tournament. The ceremony usually starts around 2:20 pm. The national anthem of the winner’s nation is
played. The entire presentation is open
to the public and media. Video and
photography is permitted by both the public and members of the media.
Steury’s gold
bracelet ceremony is set to take place on Monday, June 13th. The national anthem of the USA will be played
in honor of his victory.
EVENT HISTORY
Mixed games
are becoming increasingly more popular with many tournament players. The forbearer of H.O.R.S.E. was called S.H.O.E.
(a similar mix of games including Seven-Card-Stud, Limit Hold’em, Omaha
High-Low Split, and Stud High-Low Split), which was introduced at the 2001
WSOP.
H.O.R.S.E.
was played for the first time as a gold bracelet event at the 2003 WSOP. Organizers thought it would be interesting to
hold one H.O.R.S.E. tournament to go with the S.H.O.E. event, which took place
at Binion’s “Horseshoe.”
The first
WSOP H.O.R.S.E. tournament was won by Doyle Brunson.
H.O.R.S.E. is
an acronym for five of the most popular poker games played inside American card
rooms today. H.O.R.S.E. tournaments
include a rotation of the following games – Hold'em, Omaha High-Low Split,
Razz, Seven-Card Stud, and Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split (also called
Eight-or-Better). Many purists consider
H.O.R.S.E. to be the ultimate test of poker skill, since it requires that
players play all games well in order to win.
This claim was perhaps best illustrated at the 2006 World Series of
Poker, where H.O.R.S.E. returned to the tournament schedule after a long
hiatus. For more than two decades, the
late poker legend Chip Reese had been widely regarded as the best all-around
player in the world. Appropriately, he won the inaugural tournament which cost
$50,000 to enter and became the first H.O.R.S.E. world champion.
The rotation
of games in this tournament lasts eight hands.
In other words – following eight dealt hands of Hold'em, there are eight
hands of Omaha High-Low followed by eight hands of Razz, and so forth.
TOURNAMENT
PLAY
The tournament
was played over three consecutive days.
The tournament
officially began on Friday, June 10th at noon. The tournament officially ended on Monday,
June 13th, at 2:05 am.
2011 WSOP
STATISTICS
Through the
conclusion of Event #17, the 2011 WSOP has attracted 15,695 entries. $30,271,010 in prize money has been awarded
to winners, to date.
Through the
conclusion of this tournament, the nationality of gold bracelet winners has
been:
United States
(13)
Great Britain
(2)
Russia (1)
Canada (1)
Through the
conclusion of this tournament, the national origin (birthplace) of winners has
been:
United States
(9)
Great Britain
(2)
Ukraine (1)
Israel (1)
Russia (1)
Honduras (1)
Canada (1)
Indonesia (1)
Through the
conclusion of this event, the home-states of (American) winners have been:
Nevada (3)
California (2)
Illinois (1)
New York (1)
New Jersey
(1)
Florida (1)
Texas (1)
Tennessee (1)
Connecticut
(1)
Indiana (1)
Through the
conclusion of this tournament, the breakdown of professional poker players to
semi-pros and amateurs who won gold bracelets is as follows:
Professional Players
(14): Jake Cody, Cheech Barbaro, Eugene
Katchalov, Allen Bari, Harrison Wilder, Matt Perrins, Sean Getzwiller,
Viacheslav Zhukov, David Diaz, Andrew Badecker, Tyler Bonkowski, Brian Rast,
John Juanda, Aaron Steury
Semi-Pros
(2): Sean R. Drake, Amir Lehavot
Amateurs
(1): Geffrey Klein
Five of the
17 winners at this year’s WSOP also enjoyed their first-ever cash with their
victories.
Every WSOP
over the past 11 years has included at least one multiple gold bracelet
champion (wins within the same year).
1999 was the last year the WSOP was comprised exclusively of
single-event winners. The record for
most multiple gold bracelet winners in a single year was in 2009, when five
players managed to win two or more titles.
So far, no player has yet won two gold bracelets (this year).
The streak of
male WSOP gold bracelet winners has now reached 178 consecutive events. Aside from the annual Ladies Championship,
the last female player to win a WSOP tournament open to both sexes was Vanessa
Selbst, in 2008. The longest “cold”
streak for female players occurred between years 1982 and 1996, when 221
consecutive open events passed without a female champion.
The highest
finish by a female player (open events) at this year’s WSOP was Maria Ho, who
finished second ($5,000 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em).
New records
set at this year’s WSOP (to date):
Biggest
Heads-Up tournament prize pool in history ($3,040,000) – Event #2
Largest live
Omaha High-Low Split Tournament in history (925 entries) – Event #3
Largest live
Six-Handed tournament in poker history (1,920 entries) – Event #10
Biggest
Deuce-to-Seven tournament prize pool in history ($1,184,400) – Event #16
Largest live
$1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament in history with single starting day
(3,157 entries) – Event #18
Largest
consecutive-days starting field sizes in poker history (combined 6,238 entries)
– Event #18 and Event #20
Note:
Various categories and statistics will be updated with each gold
bracelet event as they are completed.
Note:
All results are now official and may be reprinted by media. If you are posting these results on a
website, we would appreciate providing a link back to: WSOP.com