World Series of Poker Spotlight -- Lars BondingBonding Looks to Capture His First Gold Bracelet After Early Success in 2010 |
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The first $5,000 no-limit hold’em event of the summer starts today at the 2010 World Series of Poker. One player who hopes to improve on his past success in these events is Lars Bonding, who went deep in both the $5,000 no-limit hold’em event (15th place), and the $5,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em event (30th place) last year.
Bonding, historically more of an online player, decided to take a break from the virtual felt to enter a couple of smaller buy-in events at the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza in February. The stakes were a little lower than he was used to, but this decision would actually jump-start an impressive live run.
Bonding entered a $500 no-limit hold’em event and won it to take home the top prize worth $19,396. Not too big of an achievement for a poker professional that had previously racked up $1,126,623 in career earnings, but Bonding was just getting started.
Three days later, he entered a $1,000 no-limit hold’em event and won again, this time for $34,449. Another four days after that, he won a third tournament at the Venetian, a $500 no-limit hold’em preliminary that added $24,101 to his bankroll. Although the cashes were for smaller amounts than he had grown accustomed to scoring at the World Series of Poker and European Poker Tour, the run was impressive.
Any time you win three tournaments in eight days, you’re doing something right, and the final-table experience he gained during the early months of the year will be a big help at the Rio this summer.
“Every single time you reach a final table, whether it is a small tournament, online tournament, or a big buy-in tournament, you get some experience that you can use in your next tournament. So my recent final tables will for sure help me this summer, I just hope I will be able to put myself in the position again,” said Bonding.
Bonding has cashed six more times since February, with three more final-table appearances, including his first cash at a North American Poker Tour event at Mohegan Sun in April. That cash could have been larger because everything was going great for Bonding before he lost two huge hands with pocket aces in the hole. The run of bad luck took Bonding’s stack from being a strong contender high up on the leader board to a 94th-place finish in a matter of minutes.
Bonding returns to the WSOP this summer for the sixth time. He has fared well at the Series over the years, where he has cashed eight times for $516,398 combined. That included two final tables, with a second-place finish in a $2,500 no-limit hold’em event in 2005 where he just missed winning his first bracelet.
“My goal is to win a bracelet for sure, but it will be very tough. I was very close in 2005 in my very first WSOP event ever, but my lack of experience at the time caught up to me. I outplayed myself heads-up unfortunately, but I won’t make that mistake again,” said Bonding.
He plans on playing in as many no-limit hold’em events as his playing schedule allows this summer, and possibly the $25,000 six-handed no-limit hold’em event.
“I would love to play this event, but I will decide when we get a little closer. I do love six-handed events, since you can play more hands and kind of explore a little more in the game,” said Bonding.
With multiple $1,000 buy-in no-limit hold’em events on the schedule this summer, Bonding hopes to improve on his past success.
“My success earlier in the year in the smaller buy-in events at Venetian and Wynn will for sure help me, since my confidence has gotten a boost and I have a very good idea of people’s mindset when they play these kinds of events,” said Bonding. “The biggest hurdle will be the size of the field, since the events will have so many players, you have to have lady luck on your side at least once or twice.”
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