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Randy Ohel Wins WSOP $2,500 Deuce-to-Seven Triple-Draw Lowball

Ohel WIns First Bracelet After More Than Six Hour Heads-Up Match

by Erik Fast  |  Published: Jun 13, 2012

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Randy Ohel

Randy Ohel has emerged victorious in WSOP event no. 22, a $2,500 triple-draw deuce-to-seven lowball event, earning his first gold bracelet, the $145,247 first place prize and 576 Card Player Player of the Year points. After a draining heads up battle that lasted more than six and a half hours, including a one-hour dinner break, Ohel shook the hand of runner-up Benjamin Lazer before running into his wife of one year’s arms and being surrounded by his enthusiastic rail.

“It feels amazing,” said Ohel just moments after the event ended, “It’s incredibly surreal right now. I don’t know when it will become real. I know that sounds really cliché, but its true. I felt almost out, and almost victorious multiple times before it over, and am just so emotionally drained right now.”

The 26-year-old Coral Springs, Florida native has been playing professionally for about six years. He moved to Las Vegas four years ago, spending most of his time focusing on Omaha.

“My main game has mostly been Omaha eight-or-better, and the regular game of that at Bellagio has disappeared and turned into a mixed-game. While I always played some of the games, I had to learn a lot more games. This game I have played a little bit for a few years, but only very seriously in the last year and a half.”

Benjamin lazer

Ohel and Lazer traded the lead multiple times during the grueling heads-up battle, before Lazer was eventually sent to the rail in second place, earning $89,714 and 480 POY points. Ohel said that the long and swingy nature of this heads-up match makes perfect sense given the nature of triple-draw deuce-to-seven lowball.

“This is an extremely high variance game, so it’s so easy for someone to go on runs, as we saw today, were you just win ten out of eleven pots," said Ohel. "You either brick, brick, brick every river, or you get there, get there, get there. One of us was going to run good, and it was me in the end.”

In addition to defeating Lazer, Ohel also had to contend with a host of tough notables on the final day of play, including David Baker (3rd – $59,925), Farzad Bonyadi (4th – $40,987), Shawn Buchanan (6th -$20,322), Layne Flack (8th – $14,725), Josh Arieh (9th – $10,970), Name Le (10th – $10,970) and Barry Greenstein (12th – $8,169).

The final table played out on the Pavilion Room Stage at the Rio, with supporters of both of the final two players eventually separating and creating cheering sections. Despite this particular game being somewhat hard to follow from the rail, Ohel received a lot of support from his friends and family.

“I guess I have an advantage, being a local I know more people in town than most people do. I can’t believe all these people came out to support me. I feel great about that, really I do.”

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:

Place Player Earnings POY Points
1 Randy Ohel $145,247 576
2 Benjamin Lazer $89,714 480
3 David Baker $59,925 384
4 Farzad Bonyadi $40,987 288
5 Jason Lavallee $28,585 240
6 Shawn Buchanan $20,322 192
 
 
Tags: Poker Tournaments,   2012 WSOP,   World Series of Poker,   triple-draw,   deuce-to-seven,   lowball,   Randy Ohel,   heads-up,   Benjamin Lazer
 
 
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