CHASE
BIANCHI WINS 1K NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM TITLE
Maryland
poker pro collects $316,920 top prize in Event #17
Bianchi
bags his first WSOP cash and gold bracelet
Attendance
for another popular event up over last year
Eric
Silberman finishes as runner up
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET
CHAMPION
Name: Chase Bianchi
Age: 28
Current Residence: Columbia, MD (USA)
Marital Status: Married
Children: None
Profession: Poker Player
Number of WSOP Cashes: 1
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances:
1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 1
Total WSOP Earnings: $316,920
Personal Facts: Streams on Twitch at: twitch.tv/ChaseBianchi
Chase Bianchi is the
newest member of poker’s gold bracelet club.
The poker
player from Columbia, MD topped the $1,000 buy-in, No-Limit Hold’em event,
which was played over three days and nights and just concluded at the Rio in
Las Vegas. After four cashes in Circuit events, Bianchi recorded his
premier WSOP cash, claiming $316,920 in prize money and a coveted gold bracelet to go along with it.
Not many can
say they have hoisted a gold bracelet on their first ever WSOP cash. Even fewer can say they accomplished this feat on essentially their last bullet before
their time in Las Vegas was up.
“This is one of
the last ones I was playing. I’ve been out here for about two weeks. I have a
flight booked for tomorrow afternoon. Couldn’t have written it any better.”
Bianchi, a
fun-loving husband, was sure to be excited to tell his wife the incredible
news. He speculated that the winnings could be used for a housing upgrade
within Maryland. “It might be an early down payment on a house. We’ve been
saving up.”
The final nine
players were comprised mostly of WSOP final table first-timers, including
Bianchi himself. Coming into the home stretch as chip leader, Bianchi swapped positions
here and there, but for the most part never looked back. He sought to rake in as many pots as possible
against a field presumably more focused on the payouts. “There were a lot of recreational players at the final table, so they were looking to climb the pay jumps. I was
trying to steal blinds.”
When play got
down to three, Bianchi had built up a commanding chip lead, which left him in
the driver seat and enabled him to continue to deter the others preflop.
Heads-up, he defeated Erik Silberman, a biology teacher from Rancho Santa
Margarita, CA, who walked away with $195,738.
Another
unlikely act was pulled off during the final hand when Binachi found himself in
a Heads-up cooler situation. After snap calling
an all-in bet from Silberman, Binachi showed his pocket 8s only to be suffocated
by Silberman’s pocket 10s. The flop came
Qx 6x 5x, no help to Binachi. The turn revealed a 7x, which provided a sense of
hope in the form of an open ended straight draw. A magical 4x appeared on the
river and Binachi could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
With some
previous experience in larger tournaments, Bianchi has come close to winning,
but fallen short. So, when asked how the win felt he replied, “Unbelievable. It
felt good to close one.”
Attracting a
total of 2,242 players the $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em, an always popular event,
showed a significant increase from the previous year (2015), which brought in
1,915 players.
Aside from the winner, here’s a
brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table:
Second
Place: Erik Silberman, from Rancho Santa Margarita,
CA finished as the runner up. He banked
$195,738 in prize money, his first WSOP cash and final table. Silberman is a
High School Biology Teacher.
Third
Place: Roberto Romanello, from Swansea, Great Britain, was the most
experience WSOP player at the final table. The 39-year-old poker pro used his
experience and skill to clock his 22nd cash, and largest ever at the
World Series, in the amount of $142,926.
Fourth
Place:
Charles Carragher a Circuit player, from Pensacola, FL took fourth
place. Awarded $105,308, this was his first WSOP cash.
Fifth
Place:
Paul Nunez, owner of Lucille’s American Café in Weston, FL, collected
$78,301 for his 5th place finish. Nunez has been a Miami Dolphins season
ticket holder for 17 years.
Sixth
Place:
James Alexander, who finished 19th in the 2013 Main Event, finished
in sixth place. This marked his fourth
WSOP cash. Although it was not as big as
his Main Event winnings ($285,408), he still made a generous amount at $58,758.
Seventh
Place:
Felix Morin-Dutil, from Kelowna, Canada, cashed in this same event two
years ago. Improving on his winnings, this time around Morin-Dutil claimed
$44,503 and his second ever WSOP cash.
Eighth
Place:
Cameron Rezaie, a native of Boston now living in Eureka, MO, finished in
eighth with $34,024. He learned to play poker online and now has his first
ever, live WSOP cash.
Ninth
Place: Chris Leong, from New York, NY,
grabbed his second WSOP cash of 2016 and his fourth overall. Winning $26,259 at
ninth place set his new best at the WSOP, in terms of money and finish. Leong
is an accomplished Circuit player with two rings to his name.
The tournament paid out the top 337
spots.
OTHER
NOTABLE IN-THE MONEY FINISHERS:
Colossus II runner-up, Jiri Horak
(16th), Jeff Gross (23rd), Daniel Weinman (28th), Alex Rocha (43rd), Craig
McCorkell (98th), Matt Berkey (102nd), Tristan Wade (166th), and 2001 Main
Event Champion Carlos Mortensen (188th).
Former Main Event November Niners
did well and scored a few cashes too. Steve Gee (2012) finished 45th, Martin
Staszko (2011) finished 62nd and Joshua Beckley (2015) finished 227th.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s final results, please
visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/results.asp?grid=1232&tid=14917
For Chase Bianchi official player
profile page, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/players/playerProfile.asp?playerID=98968
For the live reporting logs for this
event, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=1232&tid=14917
To access licensed Images from this and all other 2016 WSOP gold
bracelet events, please visit:
www.pokerphotoarchive.com