It is difficult to steamroll your way through a fixed bet game, especially a split pot one, but don't tell that to Calvin Anderson, who plowed through the final table of the $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo event in just a few hours en route to his first gold bracelet win and a $190,538 payday.
"I wouldn't say it was easy, I just ran really good," Anderson explained immediately after the victory. "Seven Stud Hi-Lo isn't a game where you can just start bluffing people in, you have to draw some cards, and some cards have to go your way. But I felt that I played really well. I took my time on all the decisions. There were a lot of good opponents for sure, but I ran really good."
There certainly were plenty of good opponents standing in Anderson's way. This final table was packed with familiar faces. John Myung (8th), Jimmy Fricke (7th), and Levon Torosyan (4th) have all been at WSOP final tables before, while Anderson himself, runner-up Joe Tehan, and Melissa Burr have all already made final tables this summer. Tehan's final tables were actually back-to-back, for as soon as he busted the $2,500 Omaha 8/Stud 8 final table on Friday, he jumped right into this event. That brings the total number of players who have made multiple final tables this year to 14. Of those, Burr is the only woman. She previously finished eighth in the $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo event. It is also worth noting that this final table had a certain East Coast flair to it, as Myung, Burr, and Sanjay Pandya (6th) are all regulars in the Atlantic City cash games.
Even against that formidable competition, Anderson faced few setbacks. After arriving at the final table in the middle of the pack, he began to chip up, taking a chunk out of Tehan's stack as well as most of Fricke's chips in order to move over a million in chips. By the time play got down to the final five, Anderson had more chips than the rest of the table combined.It was an impressive victory, but Anderson isn't letting poker's biggest title go to his head. "It's a good feeling to win the gold bracelet," Anderson said. "I wouldn't say it completely validates me and what I do for a career. I've had a lot of success, although I will certainly get a lot more recognition from this. It's definitely a good thing, especially after coming close a few times. "
The Yukon, OK resident has had more than one close call, including just a few days ago in the $10,000 HORSE Championship where he finished in eighth place. With two final tables including this bracelet win, Anderson will be one to watch as the Player of the Year race moves into the back half of this year's WSOP schedule.
While originally from Oklahoma, Anderson spends much of the year living in Baja, Mexico where he plays online poker. However, he also travels back to the United States and elsewhere to attend major tournaments. Anderson says he enjoys playing multiple games and wasn't at all surprised to see his first gold bracelet come in what he calls one of the "old style" poker games.
"There is a certain way to play this game and I think that's why it's maybe not as popular [as Hold'em]," Anderson said when asked about Stud Hi-Lo. "It's sort of like chess where the best players already have figured it out."
No doubt, Anderson has it figured out and then some. Now all that remains to be seen is whether or not he'll figure out how to make it back to the final table before the summer comes to a close.This year’s $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo event drew 588 players and generated a prize pool of $793,800. The top 64 finishers each earned a payday, including Mike Watson (63rd), Hoyt Corkins (57th), Matt Glantz (34th), Owais Ahmed (31st), Jesse Martin (19th), recent bracelet winner Chris Wallace (16th), and Ted Forrest, who just missed out on a second final table of the summer in ninth place.Here are the final table results for the $1,500 Stud Hi-Lo event:1st: Calvin Anderson - $190,5382nd: Joe Tehan - $118,0143rd: Eric Kurtzman - $79,8004th: Levon Torosyan - $55,3195th: Melissa Burr - $39,1816th: Sanjay Pandya - $28,3467th: Jimmy Fricke - $20,9328th: John Myung - $15,772