Sam Soverel Wins 2016 World Series of Poker $1,000 Pot-Limit Omaha25-Year-Old Poker Pro Defeats Field of 1,106 To Win His First Bracelet and $185,317 |
|
Sam Soverel is a 25-year-old poker pro whose main focus is high stakes cash games and tournaments. The West Palm Beach, FL native usually sticks to events with buy-ins of $10,000 and often higher. This week he broke his routine and entered the 2016 World Series of Poker $1,000 pot-limit Omaha event. He ended up outlasting a field of 1,106 entries to win his first WSOP gold bracelet and the $185,317 first-place prize.
“Coming into this year’s series, a $1,000 event isn’t something I would normally play,”
Soverel told WSOP reporters after coming out on top. “But I had a really bad week in cash games, so I decided to take a few days off. Then, I late registered right before the dinner break and came in with only ten big blinds when I started and then ran good.”
Soverel entered the final day of this tournament in 11th chip position with 12 players remaining. He was able to score some knockouts early to get back in the mix and then sent Zachary Hench and Garrett Garvin to the rail in fourth and third place, respectively, to take roughly a 3-to-1 chip lead into heads-up play against Kirby Lowery.
The heads-up battle didn’t last very long. In the final hand Soverel raised to 125,000 from the button and Lowery makes it 325,000 to go from the big blind and Soverel calls. The flop brought the Q84 and Lowery cut out a pot sized bet of 650,000. Soverel announced that he was re-betting the pot and Kirby made the call.
Lowery had the Q1096 for a pair and a flush draw, while Soverel showed the AK32 for the higher flush draw. The 10 on the turn gave Soverel the lead with the nut flush but also improved Lowery to two pair. The 8 on the river secured the pot and the title, sending Lowery to the rail as the runner up with $114,486.
In addition to the money and the bracelet Soverel also earned 960 “Card Player Player of the Year":http://www.cardplayer.com/poker-players/player-of-the-year/%20 points. This was his fifth final table of the year, including a fourth place finish in the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic main event and a win in a $25,000 high roller at Aria. As a result of his consistency he has now climbed into second place in the overall POY standings with 3,140 points and $1,058,314 in year-to-date earnings.
Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at this final table:
Place | Player | Earnings (USD) | POY Points |
1 | Sam Soverel | $185,317 | 960 |
2 | Kirby Lowery | $114,486 | 800 |
3 | Garrett Garvin | $81,080 | 640 |
4 | Zachary Hench | $58,164 | 480 |
5 | Bruno Borges | $42,270 | 400 |
6 | Jeffrey Landherr | $31,126 | 320 |
7 | Jared Koppel | $23,228 | 240 |
8 | Henri Ojala | $17,570 | 160 |
9 | Juuso Leppanen | $13,474 | 80 |
Winner photo courtesy of WSOP / Jamie Thomson.
For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2016 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.