James Anderson Wins First World Series Of Poker Bracelet In $1,111 Little One For One Drop

James Anderson won one of the final bracelets of the 2019 World Series of Poker Friday evening at the Rio when he bested a massive field of 6,248 players in the $1,111 Little One for One Drop.

It was the first WSOP bracelet for the Pittsburg native. He defeated Fernando Karam heads-up for the title, which was worth $690,686. Karam took home $426,543 for his runner-up finish. The score was the largest of his career and gives him more than $2.3 million in tournament earnings.

Anderson’s second-biggest score came at the WSOP Circuit Regional Championship in 2010. It was a $10,000 buy-in and he took it down for $525,449.

He played seriously for a few years after that, but ultimately took five years off from the WSOP. 2019 was the first year he cashed in a WSOP event since 2014. His return to the Rio was a profitable one. He cashed seven times and capped it off with a bracelet victory.

“I wanted to get away from the game for a little bit,” Anderson told WSOP reporters following the tournament. “I was grinding really hard and I wanted to take a little break from it. I feel good now. My mind is a lot fresher now. I have a different perspective and hopefully, it continues. It’s a good start.”

Anderson also picked up 1,320 Card Player Player of the Year points for the victory. With those points, Anderson sits in 146th place in the 2019 POY race, sponsored by Global Poker.

The final table was reached late Thursday night and the final five players bagged up chips and came back Friday at noon to play down to a winner. Bob Mather, Ying Fu, Mark Strodl and Nils Tolpingrud made the final table and busted before the final day.

Karam came into the final day as the chip leader with nearly double what Liran Betito had behind him second in chips.

Anderson scored a huge double up through Betito early in the day with A-4 all in on a flop of Q-5-3 against Betito’s Q-9. A deuce came on the turn to give Anderson the wheel, the double up and a temporary chip lead. Anderson lost the chip lead three-handed and went into the heads-up battle with Karam as a 3:1 chip dog.

Anderson quickly closed the gap and then moved into the lead for good when his pocket A-6 sucked out against Karam’s A-Q. He finished off Karam with K-5 all in preflop against Q-4.

Shalom Elharar was eliminated in fifth, Betito in fourth and Marco Guibert was out in third.

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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