Amateurs Who Killed It At The WSOP

Who says amateur poker players can’t compete head-to-head with the professionals? This year’s World Series of Poker is living proof that amateurs can indeed cash in big and surprise their much more experienced foes on the green felt.

From the Cinderella of Poker and winners who will go back to their daily jobs, to a mistake that turned out to be quite profitable and one very tough fictional writer, the 2016 WSOP has got it all. And remember, we’re only halfway through. Who knows what else Las Vegas will uncover in the days to come? But before thinking ahead, let’s just take a look back at some of the greatest WSOP stories so far. No fiction involved, real life beats the movies this time.

Story Of The Year? Kindergarten Teacher Takes Down $500,000

And what a better way to start than with a true Cinderella story? Lisa Meredith has the leading role in our first amazing WSOP story. Lisa is a kindergarten teacher from Vancouver who picked up the game of poker six years ago. Recently, she won a five-figure prize in a local tournament and convinced her husband to take a trip to Las Vegas and play some WSOP events. They both agreed to try out the more affordable events like the $1,500 Millionaire Maker and see how it went. And oh boy, did they make the best possible decision! Meredith sat down at the poker table and never looked back.

She impressed everyone around her with her tight aggressive play and even managed to cripple a standout lady who plays poker for a living, 888 ambassadorSofia Lovgren. In one of the pivotal hands of the tournament, Lisa moved all in with Queen-Jack suited and Sofia called with pocket eights on the big blind. The flop and the turn favoured the 888 ambassador but the Jack river completely shifted the momentum in Lisa’s favour. Lovgren ended up finishing in 12th place while Meredith reached the three-handed final table play.

Unfortunately for her, she didn’t become a millionaire, but she did cash in half a million dollars at the end of the event. A truly standout performance for a first-timer - the Millionaire Maker was her first WSOP event.

What plans does she have with the $500,000 you ask? Paying off her house, taking a much-deserved vacation, and saving the rest. That looks like a very solid plan. Good game Lisa!

Costly Mistake? NOT! Limit Novice Registers By Mistake And Wins

Another very interesting story unfolded in Event #22: $1,500 Limit Holdem which ended just a couple of days ago. The story, however, is not about the winner, Vietnamese-born Danny Le, it’s actually about the runner-up Scott Farnsworth from Washington State.

Upon arriving in Vegas, Farnsworth made a rookie mistake: he knew the game of No Limit Holdem very well and went to the cage, saw the Holdem tag in Event #22 and registered right away. But when he hit the poker tables, he was in for a big surprise: the game he had to play wasn’t No Limit, it was actually Limit. Not knowing the Limit rules, he had to learn on the go. Farnsworth said he read the rules on how to play Limit Holdem during Day 1 for the very first time. Surprisingly, he survived Day 1 and had a healthy stack after Day 2 was all set and done, although his competition was quite tough and experienced. On the final day, he even survived to the heads-up play where he met Limit expert Danny Le. The novice couldn’t do much though, on that stage, but still he finished runner-up and cashed in $116,663. How about that for a ‘costly’ mistake?

Part-Timers Can Kill It Too At The WSOP

Besides the usual amateurs and pros, the WSOP also had its share of part-timers, and two of them even managed to win a gold bracelet.

Heads-up No Limit Championship winner Alan Percal has probably the most amazing story if we take a closer look at his Heads-Up opponents. The field was as tough as it could get with self-proclaimed best Heads-Up No Limit player in the world, Doug Polk, and Heads-Up Sit & Go guru, Olivier Busquet, playing for the win.

It seems Percal, an actuary with the Humana health care provider, wasn’t impressed at all, and defeated foe after foe starting with poker pros Brian Rast and Jeff Gross and finishing with Busquet and military veteran John Smith. He won $320,574 for his efforts and of course a gold bracelet. Surprisingly enough, he hasn't considered taking up poker as a full-time job even after his impressive Heads-Up win. He will get back to work after the WSOP and only earn some money from poker as a bonus.

Another part-timer who has just won a bracelet is 50-year-old Swedish Peter Eichhardt. Eichhardt won Event #6: $1,500 No Limit Holdem and the top prize of $438,417.

Besides poker, he’s a crime novelist having written quite a few books. He knows poker as, after all, the casino environment can offer an aspiring writer very good stories. The Swede was also a casino manager in St. Petersburg, Russia during the 90s so we are pretty sure he must have very interesting stories to tell. But after his WSOP win, maybe he can also fictionalize his own story, one about a player who played a couple of years back, but who took the game seriously and ended up winning big in Las Vegas. How about that for a best seller?