Eli Elezra Wins His 3rd Gold Bracelet At WSOP 2015
June 29, 2015 7:12 amIsraeli businessman and professional poker player Eli Elezra has been a regular feature of the poker landscape for at least a couple of decades and in addition to being a prolific cash game players has also excelled in tournament poker. In fact, Elezra won his first WSOP bracelet in 2007 at the $3,000 World Championship Seven Card Stud Hi-Low for $198,984, followed in 2013 at the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball event for $173,236. Two years later, and the 54 year-old pro has done it once more, this time at the $1,500 Seven Card Stud to capture a third career WSOP gold bracelet
Following an impressive performance which netted him $112,591 whilst bringing his career earnings to $2,710,629, Elezra commented: “This one was really special to me. It’s the game many of us grew up on and it’s played by the most experienced players. When I won the Deuce-to-Seven that was very nice, but I really take extra pride in this one because so many well-known players have won it before me.”
WSOP Event #48: $1,500 Seven Card Stud attracted 327 players to create a prize pool worth $441,450, and amongst the 40 players seeing a return on their buy-ins was Mike Leah in 40th ($2,392), Bill Chen in 23rd ($3,399), Tom McCormick in 18th ($3,399), Barry Greenstein in 16th ($4,131), Vladimir Shchemelev in 14th ($5,094), Mike Watson in 11th ($6,365), and Eric Buchman in 10th ($8,060).
At the final table of eight, Elezra subsequently overcame such noted opposition as former WSOP bracelet winners Matt Grapenthien (8th), Jean Gaspard (7th), Allen Cunningham (3rd) and Benjamin Lazer heads-up to claim the victory. Interestingly, the average age of players competing in the event was 48 as compared to 35 for most of the other tournaments, and commenting on the win Elezra explained:
“I feel I’m running much better than I have in the past. Not only running good, but playing the right games. No-limit has become so advanced – all those young kids are much better than me. I better stick to what I’m good at.”
Final Table Results:
1 Eli Elezra $112,591
2 Benjamin Lazer $69,532
3 Allen Cunningham $44,846
4 Gylbert Drolet $32,495
5 Kenn Wittock $23,891
6 Byron Ziebell $17,821
7 Jean Gaspard $13,486
8 Matt Grapenthien $10,352