On June 6, Thursday, an Israeli poker player was finally able to snatch that elusive golden bracelet, the very first one in his poker career, after winning Event #13 of the 2019 WSOP. This memorable win comes after making his 10th WSOP final table appearance.
2019 WSOP Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw
Buy-in: $1,500
Date: June 4 to June 6, 2019
Entries: 296
Prize pool: $399,600
Yuval Bronshtein outlasted a player field of 296, the largest field ever seen in this variant and buy-in at the WSOP, to take home the prize money worth $399,600.
Born in Israel and relocated to Atlanta, Georgia at age 5, the 34-year-old Bronshtein had a total of 53 WSOP cashes to his name and this event was his 10th time to reach the final table.
Final Table Action
Beginning the final day as the second-shortest stack, Bronshtein had to endure, mainly because a tough foe named Ajay Chabra returned with over 1/3 of the chips in play. He said, "I never lose confidence in myself. I have seen people come back and win tournaments from a short stack. It's a bit more fun when you make a big comeback like that."
Bronshtein was 4th in chips at the start of Day 3, whereas Chabra was the chip leader. Chabra knocked out everyone at the final table except for one. Bronshtein was undeterred by his opponent's 2-to-1 chip lead. Thanks to his ability to read his opponent quite accurately and his specialization in heads-up showdowns, that gave Bronshtein the self-esteem he needed to jump past the huge chip deficit to become a WSOP champ.
"Ajay is a great player. I got to play with him yesterday and I couldn't beat him in a pot. I had a feeling he was going to go deep in this tournament, be one of the last three at least. However, I have a lot of experience playing heads up, not particularly in this game, I only play this game once a year, but I'm very good at heads up."
"I never lose confidence in myself. When I had three-hundred or four-hundred thousand chips, that's what I started the final table with."
The final hand of the event was between Ajay Chabra and Yuval Bronshtein.
After he won, Bronshtein called his mom to tell her finally did it, "I 'm just overflowing with happiness right now. This is considered to be the purest form of poker and I tend to agree with that. It's really about reading people."
He had a total of 53 cashes prior to this win, and at his 10th final table, he's finally a WSOP golden bracelet holder. "It feels amazing. It's exactly what I thought it would be like. I'm not surprised I've always felt I could win one of these tournaments. Glad to finally wrap one up, I'm definitely really happy about it. This has been a really big goal of mine since I started playing poker. It's been my number one goal."
This is Bronshtein's very first gold bracelet in the WSOP and thanks to this win, he now has $1.5 million in total live earnings, according to The Hendon Mob.
After a difficult year, Bronshtein said he has decided to take a different path in his life. He got injured from a car accident as well as encountered other bad experiences he didn't specify. Because of those events, he applied for a job as a financial advisor and will start work in September.
"I've made some changes in my life which have really benefited me and helped my mentality. I'm very much at peace right now. All the bad things that have happened to me over the last year, I was able to overcome them. I feel like they all made me stronger, and helped me win this bracelet, and helped me be who I am today."
2019 WSOP Event #13: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Final Table Results
|
|
Player
|
Country
|
Prize (USD)
|
|
1
|
Yuval Bronshtein
|
Israel
|
$96,278
|
|
2
|
Ajay Chabra
|
USA
|
$59,491
|
|
3
|
Jerry Wong
|
USA
|
$39,986
|
|
4
|
Steven Tabb
|
USA
|
$27,477
|
|
5
|
Michael Sortino
|
USA
|
$19,313
|
|
6
|
Bjorn Geissert
|
Germany
|
$13,892
|
|
7
|
Craig Chait
|
USA
|
$10,232
|
Source:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates/?aid=2&grid=1622&tid=17430&dayof=7446&rr=5
Here we also have only 296 entries. Congratulations to the winner!
