UK Poker Pro Praz Bansi Wins WSOP #5 Event $1,500 NLHE
June 3, 2010 8:24 amUK poker pro Praz Bansi has won the WSOP $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event, after defeating a field of 2,092 players over three days to earn himself a second career WSOP bracelet and the $515,501 first place prize.
The London based poker pro is part of a fearless and talented group of UK players, known as the ‘Hit Squad’ and includes James Akenhead, Karl Mahrenholz and Sunny Chattha.
Right from the start, Praz Bansi was in dominating form and was placed in the top ten throughout most of the competition. By the beginning of the final day of play 23 players were left and four hours later the remaining nine players took their seats at the final table.
Kyle Knecht was the first to exit in ninth ($37,943) after his short stacked K-J shove failed to improve against David Sands’ pocket 8’s, shortly followed by Sands himself in eighth ($49,409) holding pocket 4’s to Bansi’s J-J.
Hugh Bell can count himself a little unfortunate to be eliminated in seventh ($65,097) after getting all his money in pre-flop holding A-A, only to lose to David Tuthill’s 10-10, while sixth place went to Donald Offord ($86,858), after running his J-J into Vincent Jacques’s Q-Q.
Tomer Berda lost a classic A-K versus K-K race to finish in fifth ($117,416), while Praz Bansi knocked David Tuthill out in fourth ($160,654) with his K-K holding firm against his opponent’s A-J.
Following Calvin Kordus’ elimination in third ($223,069), heads-up play ensued between Praz Bansi and Vincent Jacques, with both players almost equal in chips. After a few hours badgering Kordus, all the money eventually went into the middle of the table with Bansi holding A-J and badly dominating his opponent’s A-8.
With the board running Qs-Qd-Jh-8d-2c, Vincent Jacques had to content himself with second spot and $320,913 in prize monies, while full honours and a prestigious WSOP bracelet went to Praz Bansi.
Bansi won his first WSOP tournament in 2006 at the $1,000 No Limit Hold’em event, and now is one of only two UK players to hold two WSOP bracelets. His latest victory at WSOP Event #5 for $515,501 now takes his career earnings from live tournaments to an impressive $2,000,736.