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Let’s be honest, “One time!” was so 2008. Thank heavens then that this year’s World Series banished that well worn poker cliché once and for all by ushering in the year of the multiple bracelet winner.
If the 2008 World Series of Poker was billed as the year of the pro, then this year’s event was definitely one for the repeat performers. Incredibly, four players at the 2009 WSOP managed to get their hands on two or more gold bracelets—and more than a few others came mighty close—in a Series where the cream really did rise to the top. Among them we saw the coronation of a triple-Stud champion, the return a sleeping giant, the emergence of a short-handed superstar and the debut bracelets of an online legend.
First to step up to the plate was American Brock Parker, who followed up his victory in the $2,500 six-handed Limit Hold’em event with another short-handed success just a few days later in the No Limit equivalent. Incredibly, the first part of Parker’s Series double came at the expense of Hold’em stalwart Daniel Negreanu—who was bidding to capture his sixth career bracelet—after he battled back valiantly from a huge deficit to claim the first gold bracelet of his career.
Five events later, Parker again found himself at a World Series final table, but this time the bearded maestro endured a far less torrid time as his pocket queens tripped-up to comfortably see off the 10s of Joe Serok to hand him his second title. The two wins netted Parker $776,442 and he added a further $30,428 to his 2009 tally after cashing in four other events at the Series.
Although Parker may not have been the most recognizable face at the Series before his double bracelet triumph, the next player to bag multiple titles was one altogether more familiar. Having gone four years without a WSOP title, Full Tilt pro Phil Ivey took to this year’s Series with a sense of vigor not seen since his all-conquering triple-bracelet year back in 2002.
Spurred on by the promise of collecting on a number of lucrative prop bets made with the likes of Negreanu, Ted Forrest and Doyle Brunson, a rejuvenated Ivey blew away the competition as only he could to capture the sixth and seventh bracelets of his career in quick succession. Far from being the languid, disinterested Ivey who occasionally leaves his mind on the golf course, the 33-year-old Californian returned to form by first defeating John Monette in the 2-7 Lowball event and then striking again nine days later to capture the Omaha/7-Stud Hi-Lo title against Ming Lee.
No doubt buoyed by his bracelet successes, Ivey still found the time between basking in his own glory and collecting his debts to cash in three other events, taking his total winnings at this year’s series to $356,994. These early heroics initially looked to have put Ivey in great shape to claim the 2009 Player of the Year award, but few could have reckoned on the amazing surge of another well known multiple bracelet winner.
With Ivey’s sensational return to form capturing the majority of the limelight, Australian-born pro Jeff Lisandro was able to sneak under the radar and quietly go about the business of completing one of modern poker’s most remarkable feats. Fresh from a final-table finish in the $10,000 7-Stud World Championship, Lisandro went on the mother of all heaters to capture three gold bracelets and usurp Ivey from the top of the POTY leader board.
His record-tying treble—which put him alongside the illustrious company of Puggy Pearson, Phil Hellmuth, Ted Forrest and, ironically, Ivey himself—remarkably occurred solely in Stud events, with “The Iceman” winning all three of his gold bracelets in the space of two weeks. First off, Lisandro captured a bracelet in the $1,500 7-Stud event—the same discipline in which he claimed his only previous bracelet two years ago—by defeating Rodney Pardey heads up.
He then followed that win up with victory in the $10,000 7-Stud Hi/Lo World Championship to double his tally for the year, before rounding off the triumvirate just four days later with a third bracelet in the $2,500 Razz. With all three components of his unprecedented treble coming in Stud discipline events, Lisandro’s remarkable efforts arguably secured his place as the game’s current leading exponent—and the $745,021 he netted for his successes will certainly add weight to such lofty claims.
However, Lisandro’s virtuoso performances weren’t to be the last heroics on display at this year’s Series. Canadian online phenom Greg “FBT” Mueller finally got his hands on the gold bracelet that had so eluded in recent years by taking down the top spot in $10,000 World Championship Limit Hold’em event, and the internet pro enjoyed the feeling so much that he followed it up with a second Limit Hold’em bracelet just a few days later, besting Marcus Naalden in the $1,500 Shootout.
The two wins netted Mueller over $600,000 and suitably rounded off a year where, in spite of the growing fields, talent and consistency have shone through on the biggest stage of them all. And they still say it’s a game of luck. |
