First it was Nenad Medic; then David Singer, Erick Lindgren, Mike Matusow and Daniel Negreanu. Add to that group of top-flight players the likes of Matt Keikoan, Anthony Rivera, Svetlana Gromenkova, Andrew Brown, Scott Seiver and Blair Hinkle and the list of bracelet winners from the 2008 World Series of Poker turns into a roll call of professional players.
That theme continued Sunday night as Barry Greenstein, he of the $6 million in career tournament earnings, produced a victory in Event #26 ($1,500 Seven Card Razz) to increase his personal bracelet count to three. Greenstein outlasted a final table that included a Razz specialist and one of Las Vegas’ most-prolific gamblers.
Mike Wattel, who finished 10th in this event in 2000, second in 2001 and fifth in 2005, was the first to find the rail. The next soul to be vanquished was Archie “The Greek” Karas, who gained notoriety in the early 90s for being one of world’s biggest gamblers and dominated high-stakes Seven-card Stud against the likes of Stu Ungar and Chip Reese.
Joseph Michael and Brandon Leeds would go out within a span of 12 minutes in sixth and fifth respectively. At this point Chris Viox had eliminated three of the four players and held the chip lead while Greenstein was in second. But a key hand would results in Viox surrendering the chip lead to Greenstein. From the official coverage at WorldSeriesofPoker.com:
“In a big hand with Chris Viox, in which Viox led the betting the whole way, Viox showed a 9-7-4-3-A. Viox, based on his actions, believed the hand to be good. That was until Greenstein rolled over a 8-6-3-2-1 for the win. With betting on every street, that pot catapults Greenstein into the chip lead with 661,000.”
Less than an hour after that hand Greenstein had 73% of the chips with only two opponents remaining; Viox and Chris Klodnicki. The two Chris’ would soon battle and the result was Klodnicki surviving the clash to go heads-up with Greenstein.
The two-hour heads-up match saw Klodnicki chip-up in hopes of catching up to Greenstein but it wasn’t meant to be. On the final hand of the night Klodnicki was all-in on Third Street and Greenstein called. As the hand played out Klodnicki was dealt A-K-3-K-8-6-3 and Greenstein simply needed to avoid a king-high. He was dealt 4-9-A-J-4-9-7 and his jack-high was good enough to win the final pot and the gold bracelet. Klodnicki’s second place finish earned him $97,839 and Greenstein took home $157,619.
For complete payouts visit the WSOP Event #26 Results page.