Carol Fuchs, who is an entertainment attorney, screenwriter and multi-talented live tournament poker player from Los Angeles became the twenty-first woman in the World Series of Poker’s 47 year history to win an open event winner’s bracelet this weekend, along with Alaskan businessman Young Ji (52) who triumphed in a separate event.
Young Ji claimed his first bracelet and the $231,102 first prize in event 49, a $2,500 buy-in Pot-limit Omaha Eight-or-better competition that pulled in a field of 815 players, generating a prize pool of $1,1 million.
Although he has four WSOP cashes to his credit, this was the largest tournament pay check yet for the avid poker enthusiast, who said was confident and had a very positive feeling as the game entered its third and last day.
Young Ji did well to survive a very strong field that included many top professional players, including Erik Seidel, John Cernuto, George Danzer, Connor Drinan, Galen Hall, Vanessa Selbst and Eric Baldwin.
Besting a final table full of very strong players led Young Jin to a final heads up confrontation with Mark Dube, whom he vanquished after an exhausting back-and-forth four-hour exchange to claim the main prize, leaving the runner-up reward of $142,449 to a disappointed Dube.
The other final tablers took home:
3 Alex Dovzhenko $92,310
4 Connor Drinan $67,555
5 Bryce Yockey $50,171
6 Nick Polydoros $37,760
7 Prince of Docness $28,771
8 George Danzer $22,181
9 Joseph Haddad $17,284
Carol Fuch’s victory in Event 52, the $1,500 buy-in Dealer’s Choice Six Handed was memorable not just for her achievement in winning a convincingly-earned first World Series of Poker bracelet, but for the prestige attached to this particular event.
Dealer’s Choice Six Handed requires players to have an in-depth knowledge and understanding of 18 different games, which players call in rotation as their preference.
357 players registered for the competition, creating a prize pool of $481,950 that ultimately allowed 36 entrants to cash.
Although Fuchs has been playing tournaments for the past ten years, she had only one previous WSOP cash, but proved to be both talented and disciplined in her approach after starting third in chips on the final table and steadily building an impressive stack by cannily choosing her battles.
Heads up she faced Russian professional player Ilya Krupin whom she defeated after a 90 minute exchange culminating in a hand of Omaha Hi Lo and sent to the exit with the runner-up prize of $78,933.
The composition of the rest of the final table illustrates the strength of the opposition that Fuchs overcame:
3 Robert Mizrachi $51,236 (Omaha Hi Lo)
4 Chris Klodnicki $34,252 (PLO High)
5 Yuval Bronshtein $23,528 (Omaha Hi Lo)
6 Viktor Celikovsky $16,588 (Badeucy)
7 Matt Szymaszek $12,000 (NLHE)
8 Scott Clements $12,000 (PLO Hi Lo)
9 Anton Smirnov $8,896 (Badeucy)