Brian Rast, a mixed games and high roller specialist, scooped a few hours ago his career’s fourth WSOP gold bracelet after surviving through a field of 95 entries, including some of poker’s heavyweights. The player won the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship for the gold piece and $259,670 in prize money.
While Rast’s accomplishment deserves quite some attention, it can be said that poker legend Doyle Brunson was the one to steal the show. The ten-time gold bracelet winner entered the event in the very last minute possible on Day 2 and announced that it would be his career’s last tournament. Everyone rooted for Brunson and hoped that he would end a career of great achievements in a spectacular manner and by adding an 11th gold piece from the series.
Brunson eventually busted in sixth place but certainly showed his younger colleagues one last time just how incredibly good he was at this game.
The final day of the event was played on Tuesday. It kicked off with 11 survivors, Rast and Brunson among them. The first three eliminations of the day occurred quite quickly, and it was actually Brunson’s son, Todd (himself a gold bracelet winner), to also fall in those early stages of Day 3 action. The remaining eight were relocated to a single table to play down to a champion.
As mentioned above, Brunson, to everyone’s disappointment, went out in sixth place to collect a final poker tournament payout of $43,963. From that point on, five-handed play lasted for an hour before a player left the field. It was Italy’s Dario Sammartino who busted Shawn Sheikhan in fifth place. That secured the Italian with a considerable chip lead. However, it seemed that Rast’s time had finally come as the player began to gain momentum and to accumulate chips.
Rast eliminated James Alexander in fourth place which gave him the chip lead. The eventual champion never relinquished his advantage from that point on.
Sammartino exited the tournament in third place after a clash against Rast. That made for the final heads-up match between the well-known poker pro and his final opponent, Mike Wattel, who himself boasted quite some experience on the felt and was vying for his third bracelet from the series.
The heads-up duel began with Rast holding a 4-1 chip lead. Despite the big disadvantage, Wattel put up a good fight for the better part of three hours before eventually surrendering to his opponent. The player was rewarded $160,489 for his runner-up finish.
Another Major Title for Rast
Rast does not identify himself as a tournament regular. However, he has quite a collection of tournament trophies for a non-regular. As mentioned above, Rast scooped his fourth WSOP gold bracelet by winning the $10,000 No-Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship.
The player is also a two-time WSOP Poker Player’s Championship; he won his titles in 2011 and 2016. Back in 2011, Rast won another gold piece from the WSOP after besting the field of a $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hold’em tournament. Winning the inaugural Aria Super High Roller Bowl for $7.5 million in prize money was another important milestone in Rast’s career.
Besides that, the player has been playing cash games for years now. He prefers high-stakes mixed formats to standard No-Limit Hold’em, which means that he regularly clashes against some of the world’s top grinders.
Asked about how it felt to win another gold piece and to be part of Doyle Brunson’s last tournament, Rast said that it always felt special to win a gold bracelet and that he was happy he captured another one. The player went on to say that he has been playing a lot against Brunson over the past several years and that he was full of appreciation for the poker legend.
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