WSOPE: Burns Makes it Two, Wins Second Bracelet in €2,500 Short Deck
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Kahle Burns managed to become a member of the elite club of two WSOP gold bracelet holders, and he did it in just one week. On a very-long second day of Event #13: €2,500 Short Deck at the 2019 World Series of Poker Europe in King's Resort, Burns conquered a total field of 179 entries to win his second WSOP gold bracelet along with €101,843 in prize money. It was his second ship of the series after winning the €25,500 Platinum High Roller for €596,883 earlier.
"This feels like one of those days where I've avoided all the coolers and all the post flop coolers. Obviously, I won a few all-ins on the way, just ran super good, no complaints," Burns said to PokerNews after joining the multiple bracelet-winners club.
Burns admitted that he lacks experience in this specific format. "The first time I played Short Deck was a few months ago, here actually. I played a little bit online but I probably played five or six hours online but I certainly wouldn't say I'm an experienced Short Deck player or very good Short Deck player by any means. Pretty new to the game still," he said about the 36-card game that's been taking the poker world by storm.
"It's been like a whirlwind week. Two bracelets in a week. It's crazy."
For those looking to dabble in Short Deck, the entry fee usually starts at a steep five-figure point. The relatively affordable €2,500 price tag of this event made the game accessible for mid-stakers as well. While Burns is accustomed to higher buy-in, a lot of players in the field got their first taste of Short Deck in a competitive setting like this. The Aussie had the following to say about it:
"I think a lot of the people in the field, myself included, were sort of trying to figure it out as it goes. A lot of people were in it for a lot of bullets because of the format, everyone was in there and just having fun and figuring it out. The field was certainly not afraid to gamble. Let's put it that way," Burns touched on the subject.
"It's been like a whirlwind week. Two bracelets in a week. It's crazy. Lucky enough to win one live tournament in a week, now I've won two in a week, it's quite fortunate," a delighted Burns concluded.
Event #13: €2,500 Short Deck No-Limit Hold'em Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (in EUR) | Prize (in USD) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kahle Burns | Australia | €101,834 | $112,835 |
| 2 | Manig Loeser | Germany | €62,929 | $69,727 |
| 3 | Felix Schulze | Germany | €42,233 | $46,795 |
| 4 | Federico Anselmi | Italy | €29,027 | $32,163 |
| 5 | Vladimir Peck | United States | €20,444 | $22,652 |
| 6 | Oshri Lahmani | Israel | €14,764 | $16,359 |
| 7 | Pierre Neuville | Belgium | €10,939 | $12,121 |
A Flurry of Eliminations
Day 2 started at 3 p.m. local time and players had one level of late registration to try and accumulate as big a stack as they could. After 147 entries were made on Day 1, 32 more entries were added during Day 2, for the total number of entries to reach 179. Burns started Day 2 with the second biggest stack and he managed to turn it into a dominant final table performance and eventually a gold bracelet.
"The field was certainly not afraid to gamble. Let's put it that way."
The second day of the event started at an insanely fast pace, due to the nature of the game and available re-entries. When the first level ended, there were 43 players remaining in the field ready to take a shot at the 27 paid places of the tournament.
Among those that departed empty-handed were Daniel Negreanu, Paul Phua, Rainer Kempe, Danny Tang, Phil Hellmuth, Shaun Deeb, Chris Ferguson, Anthony Zinno, and Robert Campbell. Tony G and Ismael Bojang simultaneously busted during hand-for-hand, causing both of them to get paid half the money of 27th place each.
After the field got in the money, it was a quick affair until the final table and eliminations in the money included Julien Martini (26th; €3,682), Ryan Riess (21st; €4,323), Phil Ivey (18th; €5,228), John Cynn (11th; €6,505), and Benny Glaser (9th; €8,322). The last player to bust to send the field to the unofficial final table was Hokyiu Lee (8th; €10,939) who saw his flopped two pair being in the losing end of the hand, against Burns' turned straight.
Dramatic Change of Pace
The fast pace of the first part of the day gave birth to a slow-paced final table, which needed six levels in order to crown a winner. Burns' appearance was dominant during those six levels, as the Aussie managed to turn a chip lead at the beginning of the final table into a second gold WSOP bracelet win.
Burns didn't relinquish the chip lead at any point on the final table and managed to always come back whenever he happened to lose chips from his opponents. Out of his six opponents, he eliminated Vladimir Peck (5th place; €20,444) with jacks against nine-eight, and after sending Felix Schulze (3rd; €42,233) to the rail with ten-eight versus nine-eight, the heads-up began with a 3-to-1 chip lead over Manig Loeser. In between, Pierre Neuville (7th; €10,939), Oshri Lahmani (6th; €14,764), and Federico Anselmi (4th; €29,027) were the other players that entered the final table but busted during the course of it.
Despite the fact that three-handed play lasted almost two hours, the heads-up was a short affair, with Burns needing just two hands to capture the gold. In the last hand of the day, Loeser open-shoved from the button with king-jack and Burns called with ace-jack to send his last opponent to the rail.
While Burns has already won two WSOP gold bracelets along with €698,717 ($774,179) in total prize money, he's not done yet. Tune right back in to the WSOPE Main Event where he grabbed the chip lead on Day 1b.
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