Andy Bloch Takes Home First WSOP Bracelet in 18 Years
Saturday, Andy Bloch took home his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,500 7-Card Stud event. Since he started playing the WSOP in 1995, Bloch made several in-the-money finishes. However, for 18 years, he did not get the coveted gold bracelet. This even earned him the title of the Best Player to Not have Won a Gold Bracelet. However, when Event 7 came to a close on 2nd June 2012, the player had bested a field of 367, to earn the top title. Along with the bracelet, Bloch won prize money of $126,363.
2006 – Closest Bloch Came to Winning a Bracelet
One of the events in which he was close to landing the top spot was in 2006 – the first Poker Players Championship with a $50,000 buy-in. He lost the place to one of the iconic players in the poker world – David Reese, when they entered heads-up play. Before the hand that changed Bloch’s chances of winning, Reese went all-in a few times after he drew up slim. Despite this, Reese won the 7 hour game, which then went down in poker history as the longest match in heads-up play at the WSOP. The confrontation between the two players is one of the most remembered by poker fans and players across the world.
Three Day Stud Event
Event 7 started on May 31, and went through till June 02. The final tablers at the event included some of the top players in the world of poker. Some were Barry Greenstein and David Williams, two players who had previously won gold bracelets at the WSOP. Since he started playing at the WSOP, Bloch has made twenty-eight cashes, eight appearances at final tables and over $2 million in winnings.
Facts About Bloch
Bloch is part of the blackjack team from MIT. His time with the team helped create Bringing Down the House, a strategy based book and 21, a movie about blackjack. In 1997, he made history when he volunteered to allow WSOP to track all his play at a main event. This became the Andy Bloch Project, which has been documented by some of the leading magazines.
The first time Bloch played at the WSOP, he made his first in-the-money finish after he came 9th in a stud event.
Some in the poker world are surprised that the player, who had so much difficulty in landing a gold bracelet at No Limit Hold’em games which he is really good in, won at a Stud event. Bloch clarified that when he started his poker career in the east, the most played game was Stud Poker. At that time, there were not many takers for Hold’em games. Games with the biggest buy-ins were all Stud based, and had limits higher than 75/150. Read more about other poker players like Corey Zeidman, who earned their first wins in the WSOP this year.