In 2011, the ‘November Nine’ continued as the fourth consecutive winner under the age of 23 conquered the world’s biggest poker tournament, the WSOP Main Event. Also known as the World Championship, the event attracted 6,865 entries and featured German, Czech, Irish, Ukrainian, Belizean, and British poker players, along with three Americans at the final table. The event was eventually won by a player from a country that has since turned into a WSOP Main Event superpower.
Preliminary Drama as Early Events Take Place
There was one more event added in 2010 which saw a total of 58 WSOP bracelets up for grabs, but only one person won more than one bracelet. Brian Rast took down the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event for $227,232 and the $50,000 Poker Players Championship for an incredible score of $1.72 million to be the only multi-bracelet winner at the 2010 WSOP.
Ukraine had its first-ever WSOP bracelet winner – and its second. Eugene Katchalov became the first when he took home $122,909 for winning the $1,500 Seven Card Stud event before his countryman, Oleksii Kovalchuk, won the $689,739 top prize in the $2,500 No Limit Hold’em 6-Max event.
Two men completed a ‘Triple Crown’ at the World Series by sealing their debut WSOP wins to go with victories on the World Poker Tour and European Poker Tour. French player Bertrand Grospellier won the $10,000 entry Seven Card Stud Championship for $331,639 before British phenom Jake Cody took down the $25,000 entry NLHE Heads-Up Championship for $851,912. With the win, Cody became the youngest-ever Triple Crown winner at the age of just 22.
Lamb Cooks Opposition as Main Event Begins
By the time the Main Event reached the final table, Ben Lamb confirmed his ascent to WSOP Player of the Year for 2011. Lamb cashed in five events, including four final tables and one outright bracelet win. He took down the $10,000 Pot Limit Omaha Championship for $814,436 just days after coming second in the $3,000-entry PLO Event for $259,918.
Cashing in the $50,000-entry Poker Players Championship and $10,000 6-Max NLHE Championship followed before Lamb’s deep run in the Main Event, with the American banking over $1.3 million before the World Championship even began. With 85 countries represented in the Main Event, 692 of the players who took part made the money places.
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The previous winners of the Main Event performed unusually poorly collectively, with Robert Varkonyi’s elimination in 514th place the only in-the-money finish from a past champion. Reigning champion Jonathan Duhamel busted on Day 2a, and others, such as Phil Hellmuth, went close to the money on Day 4 but did not turn a profit.
By the time the final table of nine players was reached, the evenly spread chip counts ensured that a thrilling level of excitement was present. No one had a clue who would win. Chip leader when the nine would return in November was the Czech player Martin Staszko, and he was followed in the counts by Eoghan O’Dea, who was hoping to become the second Irish Main Event winner in history, following the footsteps of the 1999 world champion, the late Noel Furlong.
Holden On in the Final
With nine players kicking off the action in October, the ‘November Nine’ would crown a winner on the day after Hallowe’en. One player who hoped it would be a treat rather than a trick busted out first – Sam Holden. The British player from Kent came into the action ninth in chips. In the 51st hand at the final table, Holden shoved with ace-jack of spades and was called by the ace-king belonging to Ben Lamb. A board of A-9-8-Q-6 without a single spade sent Holden to the rail with $782,115 and further boosted Lamb’s chances.
Ukrainian Anton Makiievskyi lost a flip to bust in eighth for just over a million dollars before Bob Bounahra busted in seventh place for $1.3m. Irish hopes died in sixth place as Eoghan O’Dea – the Son of former final table player Donnacha – left for $1.72 million.
O’Dea shoved with queen-six and was eventually called by Staszko with pocket eights, which prevailed. Down to five, Phil Collins lost with ace-seven to Heinz’s pocket nines, as, once again, a player with more chips simply called with a pair against a poor opening hand. It was indicative of an age when Texas Hold’em strategy was overly attack-minded, and ranges were as wide as the Grand Canyon.
Matt Gianetti will look back on the final as being one where he ended up on the wrong side of fortune. All-in with pocket jacks and the bigger stack, he was in good shape pre-flop against Ben Lamb’s ace-seven of hearts. The flop of K-9-5 with two hearts gave Lamb some serious hope.
“If Lamb gets lucky on him, Gianetti would be crippled.” Said Lon McEachern. A four of hearts on the turn gave Lamb the nut flush, and Gianetti was left with crumbs that were soon swept away when his ace-three was crushed by Lamb’s pocket kings that flopped quads! With that hand, Lamb sealed a minimum of $5,352,970 in winnings and the title of 2011 WSOP Player of the Year.
Heinz Variety Takes the Title
Down to three players for the final day, Lamb raised to a massive 42.5 million with king-jack, and Staszko gambled for his tournament life with pocket sevens, an outrageous call for all of his chips and most of Lamb’s. A flop of 9-3-2 was no good for the American. A three turn and ten river crippled Lamb, who was shot down to just ten big blinds. Soon, they were all in the middle with queen-six, crushed by Staszko’s pocket jacks, which survived a board of 5-5-2-2-7 to send Lamb home in third place for over $4 million.
Heads-up was an epic battle between two players from nations who had never had a winner. Chip leader was the resurgent Staszko, who had 57% of the chips in play with his plaid shirt-wearing fans roaring. Pius Heinz, hidden under a white hoodie, was going for the first German win and, early on, won a moderate hand with pocket aces to regain the chip lead. Staszko wasn’t done, pulling out an amazing bluff with just king-high on the turn for the chip lead, putting his stack on the line again, but rewarded him with 60% of the chips in play.
Heinz moved ahead again, this time by more than 3:1, and in the final hand, saw Staszko shove with ten-seven of clubs. Heinz snapped it off with ace-king offsuit. A flop of 9-5-2 looked safe enough. A jack on the turn opened up straight out for the Czech player, but Staszko, hunting one of ten outs, couldn’t find a seven, eight, or ten and collected $5,433,086 in second place.
Pius Heinz won the top prize of $8,715,638 and became the first-ever winner of the World Championship to hail from Germany. In the 13 years since Heinz’s victory, there have been another two Germans who become some of the best professionals the game of poker has ever seen.
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| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | Pius Heinz | Germany | $8,715,638 |
| 2nd | Martin Stasko | Czech Republic | $5,433,086 |
| 3rd | Ben Lamb | United States | $4,021,138 |
| 4th | Matt Giannetti | United States | $3,012,700 |
| 5th | Phil Collins | United States | $2,269,599 |
| 6th | Eoghan O’Dea | Ireland | $1,720,931 |
| 7th | Bob Bounahra | Belize | $1,314,097 |
| 8th | Anton Makiievskyi | Ukraine | $1,010,015 |
| 9th | Sam Holden | United Kingdom | $782,115 |
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About the Author: Paul Seaton has written about poker for over 10 years, interviewing some of the best players ever to play the game such as Daniel Negreanu, Johnny Chan and Phil Hellmuth. Over the years, Paul has reported live from tournaments such as the World Series of Poker in Las Vegas and the European Poker Tour. He has also written for other poker brands where he was Head of Media, as well as BLUFF magazine, where he was Editor.