Andy Frankenberger Defeats Phil Ivey For Second WSOP Gold Bracelet

About an hour before Phil Hellmuth won his record 12th bracelet, Andy Frankenberger denied Phil Ivey his ninth by defeating him in the 2012 World Series of Poker $10,000 pot-limit hold’em championship

“Winning a bracelet is everyone’s dream, but beating Ivey heads-up is like a fairytale,” Frankenberger said just after his win. “I can’t even believe it just happened. He is such a great player, and I learned a lot from playing with him at the final table.”

For the win, Frankenberger received his second gold bracelet in as many years, the $445,899 first-place prize and 780 Card Player Player of the Year points. He has moved into 76th place in the overall POY standings. 

“One of the things I realized against Ivey is that the raise-the-button thing was just not working,” Frankenberger said of his strategy for playing Ivey heads-up. “The one thing I had going for me is that he didn’t want to play big flips. I don’t blame him; he’s a better player than I am, so why would he want to flip when he could play small pots. So I had to use that to my advantage and just kept going ‘pot’ on him. I stopped playing the small pots that I kept getting crushed on, and just put him to tough decisions.” 

For his runner-up finish, Ivey was awarded $275,559 and 650 POY points, which moved him into 34th place in the standings and brought his lifetime tournament earnings to more than $16 million. He leap-frogged Daniel Negreanu into second place on the all-time money list.

In addition to defeating Ivey heads-up, Frankenberger also outlasted a number of other tough players at the final table, including Ali Eslami, Shaun Deeb, Matt Marafioti and Hoyt Corkins.  

Frankenberger now has two WSOP gold bracelets and one World Poker Tour title to his name in less than two-year’s time, seemingly validating his decision to take up the game professionally after leaving his job as an equity trader in New York.

“I left Wall St. having no idea I was going to play poker professionally. With the successes, I decided to do so, and it was a great decision. I’m really enjoying myself, traveling, playing poker, and I couldn’t be any happier with the decision.”

Here are the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

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