Jean-Robert Bellande Finally Captures First WSOP Bracelet for $616K

Thirteen years after cashing in at his first WSOP tournament, Jean-Robert Bellande has finally gotten the monkey off his back by winning a career first bracelet at Event #58: $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Handed.

The 47 year-old poker player and former reality TV contestant had previously finished runner-up in two WSOP events before on Sunday managing to overcome a field of 621 players, including Scotland’s Dean Lyall heads-up, to claim a coveted bracelet, as well as a top prize of $616,302. Commenting following a victory that pushes his lifetime earnings to $2,889,703, Bellande explained:

“Winning a bracelet in no-limit hold’em is an extra big surprise to me because it’s not my best game. I’ve worked a lot on my game but I know I’m way behind the top-level players in that game. I would never ever dream my first bracelet would be in no-limit hold’em, but it makes it extra exciting for me.”

$5k NLHE Six-Handed

The $5k NLHE Six-Handed event featured a prize pool worth $2,887,650. Amongst those notable players finishing in one of its 94 money places was Cary Katz in 57th ($8,311), Sylvain Loosli in 25th ($16,958), Martin Finger in 20th ($21,018), Sergio Aido in 9th ($45,764), and James Mackey in 8th ($61,931).

Jean-Robert Bellande then entered the final table in pole position, and soon added further to his stack after being dealt pocket jacks and sending Kacper Pyzara (A-7) to the rail in 6th. Pocket jacks also helped Bellande to eliminate Tay Nguyen (8-8) in 4th, and after dolling out the same treatment to Andrew Graham in 3rd, the stage was set for Bellande to battle it out against Dean Lyall for the title.

JB Bellande vs Dean Lyall

Bellande held a 2-to-1 chip lead over Lyall at the start of heads-up, but his opponent managed to put up a formidable struggle and at one point even managed to move into a 3-to-1 lead. Bellande later admitted to feeling unease that his tournament was about to follow the path of his first WSOP bracelet challenge a decade earlier in which he lost out after starting heads-up holding a 19-1 chip lead.

Eight winning pots in a row, however, helped him to reclaim the upper ground and settle his worries. Soon after, Lyall opted to shove his remaining 17bbs preflop holding A-3, only to run into the pocket queens of his opponent. Fortunately for Bellande, there were to be no unpleasant surprises, and after the board rolled out 10-9-3-6-4, Lyall had to settle for a runner-up finish worth $380,595.

Bellande, on the other hand, collected the bracelet and $616,302 for his winning performance, also representing his second biggest score to date. Interestingly, his biggest score came in 2015 after finishing runner-up to Mike Gorodinsky at the WSOP $50,000 The Players Championship for $784,828.

“I had a blast. I had so much fun during this tournament, not just winning but mixing it up,” commented Bellande. “Six-handed is cool because you’re always in action. The guys were all fun. We just had a good time. Every day we just had a blast.”

Final Table Result

1: Jean-Robert Bellande $616,302
2: Dean Lyall $380,595
3: Andrew Graham $254,684
4: Tay Nguyen $173,598
5: Eric Blair $120,669
6: Kacper Pyzara $85,570

Background

Bellande cashed in at his first live tournament in 2001, and four years later recorded his best year to date with $535,592 in cashes, a record that stood until 2015 when he won a total of $785,334 in winnings. Nevertheless, Bellande has already won $720,158 in 2018 alone, courtesy of three WSOP cashes, namely a 24th place finish at $10,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $15,229, a 12th place finish at $50,000 Poker Players Championship for $88,627, and now a $616,302 victory at $5,000 No Limit Hold’em – 6 Handed.

In addition to his tournament career, Bellande enjoys playing cash games, much of which has been documented on his social media. As his “BrokeLiving” moniker may suggest, Bellande receives backing for many of the high stakes games that he plays, and says that he has been involved in three $3.2 million pots throughout his life, all of which he has lost. After losing the last of them, Bellande stated that he was “out of action until I got staked” again.