Andy Bloch Wins First WSOP Bracelet; Shakes Off Unwanted Title
Bloch made it to the money for first time in a WSOP event in 1996 when he finished ninth in a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event, which is quite ironic seeing how that exact event yielded his first bracelet some 16 years later.
It seems like every year at the World Series of Poker we report on a player who wins their first-ever WSOP bracelet, an act that removes the shackles of the title "Best Player To Have Never Won a Bracelet." In recent years we have had Erick Lindgren and Bertrand "ElkY" Grospellier and in 2012 we have the story of Andy Bloch.
Hailing from New Haven, Connecticut, 43-year old Bloch has long being a regular in Las Vegas. He was part of the infamous MIT Blackjack team in the 1980s and started to take poker seriously in 1992, making it to the money for the first time in a WSOP event in 1996 when he finished ninth in a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event, which is quite ironic seeing how that exact event yielded his first bracelet some 16 years later.
Although Bloch had amassed over $4,500,000 in live tournament winnings he was still to take down what the poker community would call a major live title (WPT, WSOP or EPT) but that has now changed after he took down Event #7 of the 2012 WSOP.
Event #7 attracted 367 players to The Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino creating a first place prize of $126,363; a prize that is now tucked away in Bloch's bank account no doubt. These 367 runners were reduced to just nine over two days of play and they included Bloch - of course - David Williams and Barry Greenstein; the latter would become Bloch's heads-up opponent.
Bloch eliminated Stephen Su in third place to take a massive 1,278,000 to 375,000 chip lead into the final stages of the tournament and it did not take long at all for him to turn this advantage into the outright win. He won the first hand of note to leave Greenstein with just 140,000 chips and these went into the middle of the felt on fifth street with "The Bear" holding 7s-6d//5c-4d-8d for a straight which was leading Bloch's Qs-Qc//Jh-10h-10c. Greenstein turned over the 2s on sixth street whilst Bloch picked up the Ac giving himself a gutshot to the Broadway straight to go with his other outs. One of those arrived in the shape of the Ks to gift him Broadway and that left Greenstein drawing dead; Bloch had finally won a major title!
Final Table Payouts
1st: Andy Bloch - $126,363
2nd: Barry Greenstein - $78,038
3rd: Stephen Su - $50,332
4th: David Williams - $36,470
5th: Huu Vinh - $26,813
6th: Lee Goldman - $20,001
7th: Caroline Hermesh - $15,135
8th: Scott Abrams - $11,618
9th: Joseph Ranciato - $9,046
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