WSOP Day 13 Recap: Josh Arieh Wins Fifth Bracelet, David ‘ODB’ Wins Third, Leon Sturm Becomes High Roller Champion

Three bracelets were won on Sunday night as Josh Arieh, David Baker and Leon Sturm all added new World Series of Poker bracelets to their collection. For Sturm, it was the first and will be the most treasured possession of his poker career to date. For Arieh and Baker, who now have eight between them, it was yet more confirmation of their greatness.

Arieh Takes Fifth Bracelet in Limit Hold’em Comeback

Josh Arieh became only the 34^th person in history to win five WSOP bracelets as he took down the delayed Limit Hold’em Championship for $316,226 in Las Vegas last night. Dedicating his victory to the support of his fiancé and friends, Arieh was visibly stunned after he made a superb comeback to defeat overnight chip leader Daniel Idema.

When three resumed at the start of an extra day to conclude this $10,000-entry event, Arieh was a serious short stack, with less than a quarter of Idema’s stack, but after the exit of Nozomu Shimizu in 3^rd place for $144,069, Arieh got to work and in the end, wore Idema down to claim his third bracelet in the past four years, with a runner-up position in that time too.

Arieh is one of the most in-form bracelet winners of recent years but has also been in the game for over two decades, with his first bracelet win coming 24 years ago in the same discipline. Oddly enough, Kevin Song finished eighth on that occasion too, as Arieh described to Jeff Platt moments after his latest victory was sealed. 

Baker Wins Third Bracelet from Behind Too

David ‘ODB’ Baker arguably had an even greater comeback to celebrate when he took down Event #24, the $1,500 Razz event, where he won his third bracelet in his third different discipline, with previous successes in Eight Game and Limit Hold’em. Baker is a mixed game master and from the moment he busted Aussie Jeff Lisandro in 5^th place ($34,752), the comeback win looked to be on.

Sure enough, despite not leading the way at that point, with Justin Liberto holding more chips than his three opponents, Baker’s victory had an air of inevitability about it. Takashi Ogura from Japan busted in 4^th place for $66,659 before Baker took some of Chris Hundley’s chips. Hundley came back a little at Liberto’s expense, but again Baker took them from him and shortly afterwards, busted him to crawl over 3 million chips.

That was some way behind Liberto’s stack of 10.7 million, and it would have been forgivable to suppose that Liberto equalling Baker’s number of two bracelet wins would be more likely. Despite being down 10:1 in chips at one point, however, Baker came roaring back and once he had the lead, he never lost it. Eventually, he wore Liberto down, claiming victory for $152,991 and most importantly his third WSOP bracelet.

Leon Sturm the Hero in High Roller Drama

Amazing bluffs, titanic battles and a heads-up no one expected. The $50,000-entry Event #23 had it all and the high rollers who took part all played their part. Getting into the action with the lead, Alex Foxen managed to miss the podium places, while his nearest competitor overnight, Jans Arends, was on the receiving end of one of the bluffs of the WSOP so far!

It was the American Seth Davies who was busted first on the final day, falling in 5th place for a score of $358,617. Davies was all-in with trips fives on the river, but Sturm had turned a straight and that helped the German rise to the upper limits of the leaderboard. Alex Foxen had gone in the other direction and lost the stack he had to Sturm when he committed all of his chips on the flop with top pair, losing to Sturm’s flopped two pair. 

After running a superb bluff, Bill Klein put himself in a fantastic position to win his first bracelet at the age of 75. Sadly for Klein, it was not meant to be. After the short-stacked Dutchman Jans Arends was busted in 3^rd place for $694,019, Leon Sturm his heads-up opponent. Earlier on when play was three-handed, Sturm had been very short but doubled through Arends for a new lease of life. The chips were almost level when Arends left the table, and Sturm hit a pair of fours on the river after calling with nothing all the way to the river, taking the lead at an important stage.

From that point, Sturm never lost the lead and while Klein battled back, his final hand came soon, his eight-five good only for middle pair against Sturm’s flopped top pair of jacks. For Klein, it was a painful near miss, but Sturm claimed the gold and $1.5 million top prize, leaving Klein to accept his runner-up prize of $955,513.

Watch how it was won right here!

Trexler Tops Final 14 in Gladiator Event

The final 14 players were reached in the Gladiators of Poker event in Las Vegas as Daniel Negreanu made it all the way to 68^th place for $5,840 in the second-biggest live poker event of all time. By the time Kid Poker departed, he was the last former bracelet winner left in the mix and a new player will win gold tomorrow.

Favorites to do so will be the American Eric Trexler (97.4 million) and Brazil’s Ciao Sobral (94 million) as they have a lot more than most, with Israeli Kfir Nahum (83.6 million) their closest challenger to the title and $499,852 top prize. Immortality among gladiators awaits tomorrow.  

Seidel Chases 10^th Crown in Omaha Hi-Lo

Erik Seidel is one day away from claiming his 10^th WSOP bracelet, a total that would put him level with Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey and the late, great Doyle Brunson in pursuit of Phil Hellmuth at the top of the WSOP all-time bracelet leaderboard. Seidel will start tomorrow’s final day third in chips on 1,010,000 in the $10,000-entry Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship, with only Johannes Becker level on his total, and both Jose Luis Velador (1,040,000) and Jay Kerbel (1,065,000) ahead of him.

With other stars such as Kyle Cartwright (880,000), John ‘World’ Hennigan (630,000) and Bryce Yockey (575,000) all still in with a shout of victory, nothing will be easy. Seidel, however, will feel confident of landing his first live WSOP bracelet since his 2007 win in No Limit 2-7 Lowball when play resumes at the Horseshoe Las Vegas tomorrow.

Two More Events See Busy Day 1s

Two more WSOP events concluded Day 1s on Sunday as Event #26, the $800 NLHE Deepstack event and Event #27, the $1,500 Eight Game Mix event drew to a close with bumper numbers. Last year, 4,062 players took on the $800 Deepstack, but this year’s field swelled to an incredible 4,747, with a $3.3 million prizepool meaning someone will eventually win a top prize worth $402,588.

Top of the leaderboard after Day 1 was the Romanian player Cosmin Joldis (2,040,000), who was also the only person to bag over two million.

In Event #27, a far more well-known player was the chip leader when play concluded in the Eight Game Mix, with Shaun Deeb (311,200) ahead of Sampo Ryynanen (282,000) and Daniel Vargas (261,700).

Big names lie in wait a little further back, with Anthony Zinno (177,800), Allen Kessler (100,700), Phil Hellmuth (84,700) and Daniel Negreanu (63,900) all bagging up chips as play concluded.

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