Over five hours of intense heads up action in the four day $10,000 buy-in Razz Championship concluded Sunday at the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas with Oklahoma poker pro Calvin Anderson claiming his second winner’s bracelet and the first prize of $309,220.
The competition recorded 119 entries, creating a prize pool worth $1,118,600.
The final table included respected names like Frank Kassela, Mike Leah and John Hennigan, and it was Kassela, a former WSOP Player of the Year with three bracelets, who survived to face Anderson in the heads up on Friday.
Over five hours the duo traded the lead several times in an exciting encounter before play was stopped for the night, with Anderson holding an almost 5 to 1 chip lead. On Saturday they returned to the felt with Anderson retaining the advantage with 80 percent of the chips on the table.
Despite a determined effort from Kassela it was too big a margin to overcome, and in just three more hands Kassela had to concede defeat and the consolation of a runner up prize worth $191,111.
This was Anderson’s second biggest tournament pay day – two years ago he won $324,597 as the runner up in the Little One for One Drop event. Other final table cashes included:
3rd: Julien Martini, $134,587
4th: Mike Leah, $96,744
5th: Jerry Wong, $71,014
6th: Alex Balandin, $53,253
7th: John Hennigan, $40,817
8th: Dzmitry Urbanovich, $31,992