Joseph Cheong Wins First Major Title With $1,000 No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack Bracelet

Before Wednesday, Joseph Cheong’s poker career was linked to the huge bluff he tried to run in the 2010 World Series of Poker main event. With three players left, he six-bet all in with A-7 against Jonathan Duhamel’s pocket queens.

Duhamel won the hand, Cheong was eliminated a few hands later and Duhamel went on to win the tournament. Cheong went on to have a wildly successful career as a pro with more than $13 million in tournament earnings over the last decade, but a major title always seemed to elude him.

That changed Wednesday afternoon when he won his first WSOP bracelet in the $1,000 no-limit hold’em double stack. Cheong defeated a field of 6,214 and David Ivers heads-up to earn $687,782, good for the third biggest score of his career.

Despite the milestone, the money, and the proverbial monkey off his back, Cheong was the consummate pro after his win.

“I’ve played poker so long, it was just another day at work,” said Cheong to WSOP reporters following his victory.

Cheong also netted 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points. It’s his 14th cash of the year, his seventh final table, and his third win of the year, which moves him into 18th in the 2019 POY race, sponsored by Global Poker.

After two starting flights and three more days of play with a combined player pool, the field was trimmed down to the final six players, who returned on Wednesday at noon to play down to a winner.

Cheong started the fifth and final day with a massive chip lead. He came into the day with 100,300,000, compared to Ivers’ 60,400,000, who started the day second in chips.

Cheong’s aggressive style kept him in the lead throughout most of the final table, which ended in just two and a half hours.

Cheong scored a knockout on the first hand dealt. Ido Ashkenazi moved all in from the hijack with A-J and was called by Cheong on the button with pocket jacks.

Arianna Son was eliminated by Ivers an orbit later when she called off her short stack with Q-J against Ivers’ 9-2. Ivers flopped a nine, however, to eliminate Son in fifth.

Ivers kept the pressure on and sent Andrea Buonocore home on the next hand. His K-J held up against Buonocore’s Q-10 for his last 14 big blinds. In just seven hands, the final six players were down to three.

Ivers took over the chip lead for a brief time three-handed when Zinan Xu doubled up through Cheong. Xu’s A-K held up against Cheong’s K-4, which gave Ivers a small lead. Cheong took that chip lead back almost immediately and never relinquished it.

Cheong eliminated Xu in third, giving him a nearly 4:1 chip lead over Ivers at the start of heads-up. He slowly extended that lead and over the course of the next 30 hands, it became a nearly insurmountable 10:1 lead.

Ivers got his last 15 big blinds into the middle preflop with A-3 against Cheong’s K-J. Cheong flopped a king and Ivers never improved. Ivers earned $424,791 for his second-place finish.

Final Table Results:

For more coverage from the summer series, check out the 2019 WSOP landing page, complete with a full schedule, results, news, player interviews, and event recaps.

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