German wins sell-out event
The 2009 World Series of Poker $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em champion is Carston John, from Reutingen, Germany. John collected $664,426 for first place and was awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet.
John is a 45-year-old professional poker player, who plays online poker regularly. He also owns part of a small business involved in sports gambling in Germany (which is legal).
John competed in international backgammon tournaments and played in various clubs for many years. One of his friends from the backgammon tournaments was Danish poker player Gus Hansen.
Prior to his win, Joh had two major cashes in Europe. He took second at Casino Bergenz last year, and then finished seventh at the Irish Open, also held in 2008. His combined live tournament winnings totaled $219,542 prior to this win.
John arrived at this year’s WSOP intending to play only about 4-5 tournaments, including the Main Event.
John becomes the first player from Germany to win a gold bracelet this year. He is the first German player to win since Sebastian Ruthenberg (Hamburg, Germany) won the Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split championship in 2008. The first German national to win a WSOP event was Matthias Rohnacher (Mannheim, Germany) in 1997. The German player with the most WSOP wins is Eddy Scharf, with two gold bracelets.
He said; “My friends started playing poker and I saw them winning. Some of them even moved to Las Vegas. I saw them and I said to myself, ‘if they can do it and make some money, so can I.”
He also commented; “It takes a lot of energy in these tournaments to go deep. I never thought about the money or anything. I was just taking it one step at a time. I was short on chips much of the way. But I just stuck with it and played on….Normally, the older players like me do not win the bracelet. You see every final table with six, seven, or eight players in their 20s. It is more difficult for an older player to win it. I have a lot of respect for the older players because you have to play ten levels and you might be here 13 or 14 hours each day.”
The final table included players from five different nations – including Canada, France, Germany, Greece, and the United States. Six of the eight final table players were age 27 and younger. The oldest player at the table (John) ended up as the winner. He is 45.
The runner up was Andrew Chen, from Canada. He enjoyed two big cashes recently – fifth place at the Latin American Poker Tour championship in Costa Rica, and third place at the EPT event in Prague (Czech Republic). Chen is 21-years-old and collected $412,632 for second place.
This event was a complete sell out. This was the ninth tournament to reach maximum capacity at this year’s WSOP. This is the most gold bracelet events ever to sell out within a single year. A complete “sell out” means every seat at every available table is sold and additional players are/were turned away at registration. A complete sell out occurs are various numbers, based on the total tables and seats available for tournament use. Events which have sold out this year include: 4, 7, 22, 24, 28, 29, 39, 43, and 51.
This was the third-largest tournament (in attendance) of the 2009 WSOP.
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