Minnesota poker pro Chris Wallace (40) had reason to be delighted this week, earning himself a half-million dollars and claiming his first World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet after besting a field of 200 in the $10,000 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. championship event at the Rio in Las Vegas.
The St. Paul native nicknamed “Fox” with some justification for his disciplined and clever poker style, survived a stellar field that included big international names like Daniel Negreanu, Bertran ‘ElkY’ Grospellier, Justin Bonomo, Nick Schulman and David Benyamine, none of whom made the final table.
Those who did make the final table to compete against Wallace included Randy Ohel, Richard Sklar, Richard Ashby, Max Pescatori, Lee Goldman, Bill Chen and Calvin Anderson.
It ended in a Wallace vs. Randy Ohel heads up. with the latter holding a slight advantage, but Wallace gained a lot of ground in the stud rounds, and then took the lead after winning a respectable Razz pot. That put him in a strong position to full exploit a huge win in the Stud Eight or Better hand, taking the Minnesota player’s lead out to 5 to 1.
The disadvantage was too great to overcome despite a commendable effort by Ohel, and the match ended shortly afterwards with Ohel heading off to collect the second placing check for $313,715 and Wallace showing off his brand new bracelet and a first prize of $507,614.
The rest of the table were rewarded like this:
Richard Sklar $206,499
Richard Ashby $150,625
Max Pescatori $112,066
Lee Goldman $84,844
Bill Chen $65,273
Calvin Anderson $50,966