Event #6: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em

Peter Eichhardt is the newest member of poker’s gold bracelet club.  However, it took him nearly 25 years to get here.
The 50-year-old poker pro and part-time fiction writer from Stockholm, Sweden won the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournament, which was played over four days and three nights and concluded at the Rio in Las Vegas.  Eichhardt collected a whopping $438,417 in prize money, making this the biggest win of his poker career.

“It is huge to win this,” Eichhardt, understating the obvious.

Remarkably, Eichhardt who is a regular player in the European Poker Tour, made his first visit to Las Vegas to play in a poker tournament way back in 1992 when he came to Binion’s Horseshoe to play in the annual fall classic called the Hall of Fame series.  Eichhardt cashed in a Pot-Limit Omaha event that year and finished in third place.  From that instant, he was hooked as a poker player.

Eichhardt estimates that he’s made about 40 trips to Las Vegas, which is a long way from Sweden.  He also admits to entering the WSOP Main Event championship eight times. But has not yet cashed.  This win more than made up for the long drought.

“This is my first time to make it to a WSOP final table,” so this was huge for me,” Eichhardt said.  “I think we have seven or eight gold bracelet winners in Sweden.  Chris Bjorin has two.  And of course, there’s Martin Jacobson (the former world champion).  But it’s still pretty unusual for us in Sweden to win a gold bracelet.  It’s special for us.”

Eichhardt won his victory by prevailing at a final table which included a mix of tourney veterans and relative newcomers.  The ultimate moment of triumph came when Eichhardt was up by about a 4 to 1 chip margin and shoved all in with K-J suited.  His opponent, Davis Aalvik snap called with K-9 offsuit, and was at a serious disadvantage with his tournament life on the line.  The flop ended all hopes of a comeback as three hearts instantly gave Eichhardt a flush, which abruptly ended the competition.  Aalvik who finished as the runner up, received a nice consolation prize amounting to $270,842.

The winner had some surprising words to say afterward about the level of competition he experienced, as well as a compliment for at least one opponent. 

“I thought the field was pretty soft, actually.  Especially early on.  Then, it got tougher when it got down to four tables.  But other than a few spots, this final table wasn’t that tough for me,” Eichhardt said.  “Michael Addamo was someone I have played with online and he’s very good.  He’s very aggressive.  When he went out (third), I felt better about that.”

Apart from poker, Eichhardt is an aspiring fiction writer.  He’s working on a few books, mostly crime stories.  Eichhardt noted that he worked as a casino manager in St. Petersburg, Russia during the 1990s and encountered a number of dicey situations which gave him plenty of stories for a “fictional” story.  Obviously, the names will be changes to protect the guilty.

The tournament ran longer than expected.  In fact, a fourth day was necessary to complete the tournament, which brought back the last four players.  It then took about three hours to play down to a winner.  At some point during the last day, each of the four players had the chip lead.  But Eichhardt was the only one able to hold onto it.

This tourney attracted 2,016 players which created a prize pool totaling $2,721,600.  The top 303 finishers collected prize money.  Aside from the winner, here’s a brief report of the other top finishers who made the final table:

Second Place:  Davis Aalvik, from Long Beach, CA enjoyed his best finish in nine cashes, earning $270,842 for this event.  Aalvik has now won more than six figures at both the WSOP and on the WSOP Circuit.

Third Place:  Michael Addamo, from Melbourne, Australia was highly complimented by the winner, who noted that the two players had engaged many times in online poker tournaments.  This was the second time this year for the Australian to cash in his first year to attend the WSOP.  The 21-year-old college student added $196,202 to his poker bankroll and tuition fund.

Fourth Place:  John Racener, from Tampa, FL crossed the $7 million mark in career WSOP earnings with his $143,563 payday in this event.  Racener, who has yet to win a gold bracelet despite several high finishes, now has 38 WSOP cashes, most notably a runner-up finish in the 2010 WSOP Main Event championship.

Fifth Place:  Tim Farrelly, an Irish poker player, tagged his fourth time to cash, and biggest payout by far with this $106,115 score and first final table appearance.  Farrelly has also enjoyed three cashes already at the 2016 series and will be aiming for more in the weeks to come.

Sixth Place:  Bruno Borges, from Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil hoped to become the first South American champion of the year, but fell short.  In his second time to cash at the WSOP, he picked up $79,241 in prize money.

Seventh Place:  Raymond Phu, from El Monte, CA made his first final table appearance and deepest run to date with this accomplishment.  Phu was paid out $59,787 in what amounted to his fourth cash in the last two years at the series.

Eighth Place:  Anthony “Ant” Zinno, a gold bracelet winner last year and a three-time World Poker Tour champion from Boson, MA clocked his first cash since winning the $25K buy-in High Roller in 2015.  Incredibly, the Ant’s last six WSOP cashes have all been final table appearances, meaning when he makes the money, he ends up going deep.  The Ant stung the prize pool for a relatively modest cash prize totaling $45,582, which pushed his WSOP career earnings over the $2 million mark.

Ninth Place:  Richard Dubini, from Rio Gallegos, Argentina cashed for the first time since posting a top-300 finish in the 2014 WSOP Main Event championship.  His second final table appearance resulted in a $35,121 payout.  Back in 2013, Dubini took seventh in a similar event.

This was the 6th event on this year’s schedule.  This leaves 63 gold bracelet events still to go.

Davis Aalvik calls on the button, and Peter Eichhardt checks his option.

Both players check it all the way down as the board runs out      . 

Eichhardt turns over    for a pair of threes, and Aalvik mucks his hand. 

From the button, Michael Addamo moves all in for 2,915,000. Action is on Davis Aalvik, who goes deep into the tank. He puts his hands together, rubs them, rubs his face, takes his glasses off. He is visibly distressed by the decision. Finally, he cuts out the 2,915,000 from his stack and looks at what would be left. He announces his call and action moves to Peter Eichhardt. 

"Now it's time to figure out what I'm going to do," Eichhardt says. He peeks down at his cards, then folds, leaving Addamo and Aalvik battling for just under half of the chips in play. 

Addamo:   
Aalvik:   

The flop comes down     and it leaves Addamo's rail cheering for a club or a queen. The   on the turn makes things interesting as it gives Addamo a flush draw, but he doesn't complete it when the   comes on the river. Addamo is eliminated in third place, leaving Peter Eichhardt and Davis Aalvik moving on to heads-up play. 

Davis Aalvik - 7,738,000 (30 bb)
Peter Eichhardt - 7,740,000 (30 bb)
Michael Addamo - Eliminated