The World Series of Poker continues to be the talk of the town as the mega event continues in Las Vegas. This week’s headlines include a couple of notable wins as well as a surprise story with a German international soccer player making a run at a bracelet.
Obst Collects Gold at WSOP
James Obst of Australia won a gold bracelet at the World Series of Poker by winning the $10,000 Razz Championship event in Las Vegas. Obst also earned the second-biggest payday of his career as he won $265,138 by outlasting the field for this event. He previously won $27,930 at a World Series of Poker event in July 2016. Obst is now seventh all-time when it comes to Australian poker players in terms of the money list.
It was the first win in a tournament for Obst since February 2016 when he won a No Limit Hold’Em High Stakes event in Perth at the 2016 Perth Poker Champs. He has won over $2.5 million in total live earnings, but more importantly Obst now has himself a gold bracelet.
Bach Wins WSOP HORSE Championship
David Bach also won a gold World Series of Poker bracelet as he won the $10,000 HORSE championship. Many considered him an underdog after looking at the final table. Bach had to beat out the likes of Daniel Negreanu, Jason Mercier, Eric Rodawig and Andrew Brown, but he outlasted them all to win the first-place prize of $383,208. It was his third career bracelet in a World Series of Poker event and he is now sitting at $3.95 million in terms of total career winnings.
Rodawig finished second in this event, followed by Don Zewin, Brown, Mercier and Negreanu, but in the end it was Bach who was left standing as he had to battle back from an early deficit.
German Soccer Star Impresses At WSOP
Max Kruse is known to soccer fans as a forward for German club Werder Bremen, having also played for the national team on 14 occasions (he scored four goals). However, Kruse is also an avid poker player and he recently got to the final table at the $1,500 Limit 2-7 Lowball Triple Draw event for the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It was the second time that Kruse has gotten to the final table at this event as he finished third here back in 2014, winning $36,494.
This time he finished fourth as Kruse took home $28,740 for his troubles before he was eliminated by Brenden Taylor, who would finish second. Brian Brubaker ended up winning the event, collecting $109,967 and a World Series Of Poker gold bracelet.
Kruse has managed to win over $120,000 from playing poker, but he also made news in October 2015 as he was fined by former club Wolfsburg after it was reported that he lost over $80,000 in the back of a cab after a night of poker in Berlin. Kruse has stated many times that he wants to play poker more when he retires around the age of 35 or 36. He is 29 now and seems to have a solid “backup plan” once his day job wears thin.