Event #19: $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha

Sam Soverel is the newest member of poker’s gold bracelet club.

The professional poker player from West Palm Beach, FL won the $1,000 buy-in Pot-Limit Omaha tournament, which was played over three days and nights and just concluded at the Rio in Las Vegas.  Soverel collected $185,317 in prize money, making this the biggest tournament win of his career.  This was only the third time he’s cashed in a WSOP event.

However, Soverel is certainly not new to high-stakes poker action.  He routinely plays in big cash games, engages in prop betting, and has entered a fair number of high-roller events which cost as much as $25,000 to enter.  Only because he’s been running bad lately did Soverel decide to step down in class, at least buy-in wise, and play in a $1K buy-in event.  As fate would have it, the jinx wasn’t just broken.  It was obliterated with a gold bracelet victory.

“Coming into this year’s series, a $1,000 event isn’t something I would normally play,” Soverel said later.  “But I had a really bad week in cash games, so I decided to take a few days off.  Then, I late registered right before the dinner break and came in with only ten big blinds when I started, and then ran good.”

Soverel survived the first two days, then won his victory at a final table with mostly newcomers to Day Three action.  None of the nine finalists had previously won a gold bracelet, guaranteeing a first-time winner.  Garrett Garvin, from Encinitas, CA began Day Three with the chip lead.  However, he ended up finishing in third place.

“I changed my strategy up somewhat,” Soverel said afterward.  “I started limping in (calling) a lot.  That’s something I almost never do.  But there were some weak spots at the final table, so I was able to play more.”

The final moment of triumph came when Soverel scooped the final pot of the tournament against Kirby Lowery, who finished as the runner up.  For his fine effort, Lowery collected $114,486 as a consolation prize.

Soveral noted that he started Day Three low on chips, then managed to win a few big pots early at the final table.  That helped him to muscle his way into the chip lead and become the dominant player at a table that lasted about six hours.

This tourney attracted 1,106 entries which created a prize pool totaling $995,400.  The top 166 finishers collected prize money. 

Aside from the winner, here’s a brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table:

Second Place:  Kirby Lowery, from Houston, TX finished as the runner up.  This was his third time to cash at this year’s series, which paid $114,486.

Third Place:  Garrett Garvin, from Encinitas, CA came in third place.  This was his fifth time to cash at the WSOP.  This first career final table appearance paid $81,080.

Fourth Place:  Zachary Hench, from Louisville, KY finished in fourth place.  He collected $58,164 in what was his seventh time to cash in a series event.  This was also his best WSOP showing, to date.

Fifth Place:  Bruno Borges, from Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil, finished in fifth place.  This was his second final table appearance of this year’s series after coming in sixth in a $1,500 buy-in NLHE event.  This payout amounted to $42,270.

Sixth Place:  Jeffrey Landherr, from Wentzville, MO enjoyed his fourth WSOP cash.  He’s made some deep runs in the past, bubbling the final table of last year’s $10K Pot-Limit Omaha championship (10^th).  He also finished as the runner up in the WSOP Circuit championship last year held at Choctaw, which was good for nearly a quarter million in prize money.  This time, he picked up $31,126 for the three-day tournament.

Seventh Place:  Jared Keppel, from Minneapolis, MN made his deepest run ever and first final table appearance at the WSOP with this seventh-place showing, which paid $23,228.

Eighth Place:  Henri Ojala, from Helsinki, Finland now has two WSOP cashes, both this year, after coming in eighth-place.  He added $17,570 to his poker bankroll.