(Photo: WSOP.com)
It was a return to the days of his youth for 33-year old Jason Strasser as he took down the WSOP Circuit Main Event in Choctaw some 10 years after giving up the full-time pro poker life for an equally lucrative job in the hedge fund markets – and now he seems to be enjoying his amateur status as much as his financial work.
His time away from the tables meant the former $million winning online sensation had some catching up to do when he did find time to play – telling reporters how a decent run in the WSOP Main Event a few years ago:
“I got to like Day 4 and was like ‘Whatever I was doing before isn’t working and the game has passed me by.’ “Whenever I had free time from work, I would fire up some poker videos," said Strasser. “I would watch Run it Once videos, talk to some players that were good and I kind of worked on my game for the first time in like six or seven years.”
The work has evidently paid off, Strasser having to top a field of 1,249 entries to the $1,675 buy-in Main Event at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant – a prizefund of $1,873,500 waiting to be shared by the 135 who made it to the money.
“It’s great”, said a delighted Strasser after taking down his 2nd WSOP Circuit gold ring. “I mean, honestly, I don’t get to play much poker these days and the final table, the way it played out, we were three-handed for a long time and it was really, really fun because it wasn’t 20 big blind push/shove. It was actual, real poker."
Strasser told WSOP reporters after the win.
"I really enjoyed my opponents and getting into the flow of it. I had a great time.”
The great time involved climbing his way up the title-chasing pack on the fourth and final day, eventually being among the chip leaders when the final table was set – a drawn-out affair when 3-handed settled after 142 hands when Strasser finally got rid of Viet Van Vo to leave him heads-up with Krzysztof Stybaniewicz.
The end when it came was a classic race, Strasser’s pocket 8’s up against a suited A9, Stybaniewicz’s title dreams at risk – and when the board ran dry it was a sweet victory for the one-time ‘new kid on the block’.
Final Table Results:
| 1 | Jason Strasser | $332,539 |
| 2 | Krzysztof Stybaniewicz | $206,085 |
| 3 | Viet Van Vo | $151,248 |
| 4 | Trung Pham | $114,284 |
| 5 | Gil George | $87,211 |
| 6 | Mark Van Keirsbilck | $67,128 |
| 7 | Casey Brown | $52,271 |
| 8 | William Berry | $41,180 |
| 9 | Jeffrey Trudeau | $32,824 |