Loren Klein Captures WSOP Bracelet for Third Year in a Row

The 2018 World Series of Poker has already produced a number of interesting story lines, including John Hennigan winning a 5th WSOP bracelet, Michael Mizrachi capturing a record-breaking third $50,000 Poker Players Championship title, and Farhintaj Bonyadi triumphing at the Super Seniors Event to becomes the first female champion of 2018, as well as the first mother-son (Farzad) bracelet winners in WSOP history.

Continuing the theme, Loren Klein has just claimed a third career gold bracelet after taking down Event #49: $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship, with his latest victory now stringing together three consecutive years of title take-downs for the Colorado resident. In so doing, the 36-year-old poker pro also joins Matt Matros and Allen Cunningham as the only other players post-poker boom to have won bracelets over three consecutive WSOPs.

Nevertheless, Klein seemed keen to underplay his achievement, and after being asked what winning bracelets over three consecutive years meant to him, replied:

“Not a ton, the variance in getting a bracelet is pretty wild. I was the same player I was three years ago before I had any bracelet, so it doesn’t mean a whole lot. But it is certainly a good time.”

$10k Pot Limia Omaha Championship

The $10k Pot Limit Omaha Championship attracted 476 players to create a prize pool of $4,474,400. Amongst the noticeable pros seeing a return on their buy-ins was Joe Hachem in 61st ($15,739), Ben Lamb in 42nd ($18,664), Scotty Nguyen in 35th ($21,028), Ryan Laplante in 27th ($24,219), Matt Giannetti in 21st ($28,502), Dario Sammartino in 15th ($34,256), and Yan Tsang in 10th ($67,210).

The final table of eight was similarly stacked with top poker talent, with all finalists having won one or multiple WSOP bracelets in the past, apart from US player Jerry Wong and Russia’s Alexey Makarov.

Mike Leah (Kh-Kd-7d-5d) subsequently eliminated Makarov (Ad-Qd-10d-4s) in 8th, although soon after he was sent to the rail himself in 7th by Ryan Hughes. Next, Loren Klein (Ks-7c-6h-4s) took care of Scott Bohlman (Ac-Qd-Jc-8c) in 6th, before being dealt Jd-Jc-10c-8c and doing likewise to Ryan Hughes (Ah-Ad-Ks-10s) in 5th after the dealer laid out a Js-8d-3h-Kd-5h board.

Finally, it was then the turn of Rep Porter to play the part of executioner by sending Jerry Wong (4th) and Brandon Shack-Harris (3rd) out of the competition, in the process setting up heads-up play against Klein for the title.

Loren Klein vs Rep Porter

A 3-times WSOP holder, Washington pro Rep Porter won his first bracelet in 2008 at $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em ($372,843), followed in 2011 by $2,500 Seven Card Razz ($210,615), and in 2016 at $1,500 Seven Card Razz ($142,624).

Despite eliminating the last two players at this year’s final table, Porter still entered the final phase at a 3-to-2 chip disadvantage. At one stage during their heads-up contest, he then managed to close the gap to just four big blinds, but the contest was soon brought to a conclusion after a preflop cooler in which Porter moved all-in holding Ks-Kd-Jd-5c. Unfortunately for him, Klein had been dealt Ad-Ac-3d-2h, and after making the call, the dealer laid out a 10s-4c-2c-4d-9c board to consign Porter to a runner-up finish worth $629,378.

Loren Klein, on the other hand, captured a third WSOP bracelet, while the $1,018,336 he earned for the victory now pushes his career earnings to $2,707,577. Throughout the tournament, Klein was sporting a “Make America Great Again” cap, for which he apparently received a lot of flak. He also wore the same hat for his winner’s photo, and as he commented during the shoot:

“I can’t take it off now, the hat got me here. And there are a lot of haters out there that need this picture, just check out my Twitter feed today. There are a lot of haters, I can’t wait. Watch my twitter feed, it was non-stop today.. This might get me a Whitehouse invitation”.

Final Table Results

1: Loren Klein $1,018,336
2: Rep Porter $629,378
3: Brandon Shack-Harris $433,259
4: Jerry Wong $303,491
5: Ryan Hughes $216,391
6: Scott Bohlman $157,097
7: Mike Leah $116,166
8: Alexey Makarov $87,522