Reluctant winner lands biggest prize

News / Amy / 03 July 2008 / Leave a comment

The biggest single cash prize of the World Series of Poker so far in Las Vegas has just been won when Joe Commisso took down the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em six handed tournament, event 46, writes Rob Eddy.

The man from Michigan landed the first prize of $911,585, and the gold bracelet as well of course, but it sounds like the titanic tussle he was involved in, which included 209 hands of heads up play, was enough to put him off tournaments for life.

"I pretty much detest tournaments," Commisso said after his victory. "I don't know if I ever want to play one again. It's like someone sucking your soul out. I just want to sit in my boxer shorts and play online. I might retire on top. I got my bracelet, I might not play any tournaments ever again."

It could have been so different if a straight draw had not come good on the river with his opponent, Richard Lyndaker, holding top pair, when he was all-in.

"I got it in bad, so I won," Commisso said. "That's all I had to do. I should have figured that out the first 10 times when I got in ahead."

There were in fact 13 all-ins when play was down to the final two and eventually Commisso was able to celebrate his success when his ace-queen held up against Lyndaker's 9-7, with the board coming down Q-10-4-10-8.

Lyndaker though was at least able to take home a not-too-shabby $570,551 for his troubles, which of course was a bigger prize than some earlier first-place finishes in the WSOP.

However, it is a prize that will be dwarfed by the Main Event in Las Vegas as well as the upcoming WSOP Europe in September in London.

Last year, Jerry Yang bested a field of 6,358 in Sin City to take home $8,250,000, while Norwegian poker prodigy Annette Obrestad became the youngest winner of a bracelet with her success in the WSOPE.

She landed the top prize of $2,013,102 (£1m), the largest ever won by a woman, on the day before her 19th birthday and will be looking to repeat the feat and defend her title, when the action gets underway on this side of the pond later this year.