One of the biggest ambitions of a poker player is to get their hands on a prestigious WSOP bracelet. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that the poker community is now awash with theories as to why 6 times WSOP title holder T.J. Cloutier, should have sold one of his winning bracelets to a pawn shop recently.
The item is presently up for sale on ebay, and with less than 9 hours left before the auction closes has reached a current price of $3,550.00. It is believed Cloutier sold his most recent WSOP memento, the 2005 World Series of Poker $5K No Limit Bracelet, to the Plano Pawn Shop who then decided to place the item on ebay themselves.
The pawn shop in question is located a short 10 minutes drive from Cloutier’s Texas residence, and according to Poker News Daily, an employee at the Plano Pawn Shop named Larry commenting on the sale said:
“We haven’t offered them for sale in the Plano area; it has strictly been something that we’ve done through eBay. We really didn’t have a clue what they would be worth, but we knew what we needed to get out of the items to make a fair profit.”
T.J. Cloutier (71) is one of the most successful players in the history of the WSOP and combined with his 6 bracelets and 55 WSOP cashes for $4,322,186, appears 10th on the poker all time money list with $9,787,199 in lifetime earnings.
However, the last two years has brought T.J. just $84,000 in live tournaments earnings, of which a percentage would have been kept by backers who pay for his buy-in for a cut of the action. Cloutier is also known to enjoy gambling in casinos quite regularly, especially at the craps tables, and admitted to having lost over $3 million at various casinos.
The auction of T.J. Cloutier’s 2005 WSOP $5K No Limit Bracelet is due to end around 1:30 Pacific Time on Sunday, and his trophy from the 2007 Scotty Nguyen Poker Challenge IV is also up for sale on the auction site..
