Brian Rast won the Poker Players Championship for the third time
On Thursday, American poker pro Brian Rast made history by becoming a three-time champion of one of the most prestigious tournaments of the World Series of Poker. Brian Rast won the Poker Players Championship for the third time and joined Michael Mizrachi, who has the same number of wins in this event with a 50,000 USD buy-in. The 41-year-old player earned 1,324,747 USD.
“This is my favorite tournament. I want to take this opportunity to tell my wife, who is not here, I love you, Ju. She was with me all her free time. Playing poker, you feel a lot of emotions and a lot of things happen, but she always knows what to say to me. So, Juliana, it was for you, baby,” Rast said.
Rast won his first victory in this mix tournament back in 2011. Five years later, he won the tournament again, equaling the victories of Mizrachi. In 2018, Mizrachi won the PPC for the third time, and now, on June 22, Rast won his sixth bracelet of the series. The other three wins came in pot-limit hold’em with a 1,500 USD buy-in (2011), unlimited 2-7 single draw lowball for 10,000 USD (2018) and NLH 6-max for 3,000 USD (2021).
Rast became only the 20th player in history with six or more wins in the World Series of Poker. After the last victory, his offline earnings increased to 24.8 million USD. In addition, Rast received seven-figure prize money for the sixth time, and his best result is 7,525,000 USD for winning the Super High Roller Bowl 2015.
Final day
The tournament lasted 5 days, and 15 players out of 99 earned money. The prizes included multiple WSOP champions: John Monnette (15th place), Phil Hellmuth (14th), Marco Johnson (11th), Daniel Alaei (10th), Josh Arieh (9th), Ray Dehkharghani and Phil Ivey (6th).
The final day began with Talal Shakerchi in the lead. The first level was unsuccessful for the British player, and soon he sank to the bottom of the chip count. At the same time, Rast was building up his stack. In the first knockout of the day, Brian Rast won a coinflip with A-K from Kristopher Tong, who held 9-9. Everything was decided by the ace on the turn.
After this knockout, Rast had 73% of all chips in his hands, and it took him less than an hour to deal with all his rivals. The owner of the bracelet, James Obst, lost most of the chips in Omaha 8 or better. With a flash, Obst lost to the full house of Rast. No one managed to put together a low combination.
Matthew Ashton was eliminated next in a three-way hand in the same Omaha 8. Rast collected a straight in the high hand and a nut low hand, while Ashton had two pairs in the senior hand. As a result, Rast took the first half of the bank, and shared the second with Shakerchi.
- Brian Rast — 1,324,747 USD
- Talal Shakerchi — 818,756 USD
- Matthew Ashton — 573,679 USD
- James Obst — 411,824 USD
- Kristopher Tong — 303,071 USD
- Phil Ivey — 228,793 USD
- Ray Dehkharghani — 177,294 USD
In the heads-up against Shakerchi, Rast had 5.5 times more chips. Soon the gap from the opponent increased due to several victories in Omaha 8. The last hand was held in Razz. Shakerchi had (8-2) 4-A-Q-J, while Rast held (4-3) 8-2-10-8. Rast eventually put together a combination of 8-7-4-3-2, and Shakerchi caught the king and lost the hand.