FROM 2010 NOVEMBER NINER TO 2011 GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
How does anyone top making the WSOP November Nine?

That’s an easy answer for any serious poker player.  How about returning the following year to the World Series of Poker, and winning a gold bracelet.

Today, Matt Jarvis did exactly that.  Seven months after his uber-impressive eighth-place finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event Championship, he returned to the arena of his former glory and heartache and ended up winning his first WSOP title.  Jarvis won the $5,000 buy-in Six-Handed No-Limit Hold’em championship, held at the Rio in Las Vegas.  This was the 40th gold bracelet event (of 58) on this year’s schedule.

Jarvis overcame a brutally-tough field totaling 732 players.  More of a challenge perhaps than the sheer volume of runners, was the fact that this was as stacked a field as has ever been assembled for any live six-handed competition.  Indeed, the best online poker players in the world mingled amongst a few hundred world-class touring pros creating a gauntlet for any aspiring champion.  After three long days and nights, plus an unscheduled fourth-day afternoon, Jarvis alone proved up to the challenge.

Matt Jarvis is a 27-year-old poker pro from Vancouver, BC (Canada).  He won $1,045,743 by outlasting 7,311 players in last year’s championship.  Jarvis added a whopping $808,538 to his bankroll for this victory, which was one of the biggest cash prizes of the year so far at this year’s WSOP.  Jarvis now has more than $1.8 million in winnings over the past two years, which places him among the top ten performers in that category.

The runner up was Justin Filtz, from Stevens Point, WI.  He is a 24-year-old poker pro who was making his second top-three finish as the WSOP.  Filtz previously finished third in an event at the 2008 WSOP.  The final duel was a real test for both players.  The see-saw battle lasted four hours in real time.  Both players had chances to win.  But it was Jarvis who ultimately took advantage of his edge and won the final pot of the tournament.

Jarvis becomes the fifth Canadian poker champion so far at the 2011 WSOP.  In fact, the last four gold bracelet events have all been won by non-Americans.  Players from Russia, France, Ukraine and Canada have won the last four tournaments in succession.

Speaking of Canadian poker champions, last year’s Main Event winner didn’t fare too badly, either.  Jonathan Duhamel, the reigning world poker champion from Montreal, finished in 15th place.  Four-time gold bracelet winner Daniel Negreanu, originally from Toronto, also went deep, finishing in 20th place.

For a comprehensive recap of Event #40 including the official report, please visit WSOP.com again later.