PETER EICHHARDT WINS BIG NO-LIMIT HOLD’EM PRIZE
Swedish poker pro collects $438,417 for first place in Event #6
First of multiple $1,500 buy-in NLHE tourneys draws 2,016 entries
Tournament extends into an unscheduled fourth day
Davis Aalvik finishes as runner up, pockets $270,842 as consolation prize
“Ant” Zinno posts first WSOP cash since winning $25K High Roller last year
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION
Name: Peter Eichhardt
Birthplace: Stockholm, Sweden
Age: 50
Current Residence: Stockholm, Sweden
Marital Status: Single
Children: 1 (daughter)
Profession: Poker Player and Writer
Number of WSOP Cashes: 2
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories (with this tournament): 1
Total WSOP Earnings: $439,255
Personal Facts: Crime novelist (writer)
Quote of the Day:
“A few years ago, I wasn’t good in poker, at all. I was playing in the Bahamas and I looked around and everyone at the table was like between 21 and 30 and they were so good. And I was so bad. I was like a tourist there. I just made up my mind to start taking the game more seriously and do something about it. And, I did. I started studying a lot. I worked a lot at it, and now here I am.”
Peter Eichhardt (winner of Event #6 at 2016 WSOP)
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: David 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 Boston, 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.
OTHER NOTABLE IN-THE MONEY FINISHERS:
Michael Moore, a gold bracelet winner, finished in 16th place.
Alexandru Masek, who is the all-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner (currently with nine victories), finished in 20th place.
Mike Leah, a gold bracelet winner, and three-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner, finished in 37th place.
Vinny Pahuja became one of the few players to cash in three events at this year’s WSOP, with his 60th-place showing in this event. He made the final table in Event #4 and also cashed in the Colossus tournament.
WSOP Circuit grinder and five-time gold ring winner, Mark “Pegasus” Smith cashed in this tournament.
Other gold bracelet winners who edged into the money included Matt Jarvis, Tyler Patterson, Kyle Julius,
Actor James Woods finished in-the-money, which was his second cash this year. Woods, who has enjoyed an extensive career in film and television has now cashed in at least one WSOP event in each of the last four years.
Allen “Chainsaw” Kessler cashed in this event, which excited a substantial percentage of the poker world.
EVENT DIRECT LINKS:
For this event’s final results, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/results.asp?grid=1232&tid=14906
For Peter Eichhardt’s official player profile page, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/players/playerprofile.asp?playerID=216409
For the live reporting logs for this event, please visit:
http://www.wsop.com/tournaments/updates.asp?grid=1232&tid=14906
To access licensed Images from this and all other 2016 WSOP gold bracelet events, please visit:
www.pokerphotoarchive.com