The 46th World Series of Poker kicked off on May 27 at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas with a special two-day $565 Casino Employees No-Limit Hold’em event, which was completed last night. Casino worker Brandon Barnette topped the field of 688 entries to win the amount of $75,704 and the first bracelet for this year’s edition of the WSOP.
The WSOP Casino Employees event has been organized almost every year over the past two decades. Its main goal is not only for the best poker players employed in the gambling industry to be determined, but also to honor their work. It could be said that the WSOP Casino Employees event is the world’s longest-running one of this kind. Over the years, it has attracted a number of people involved in the casino industry, such as dealers, bartenders, executives, reporters, etc.
California-native Barnette is currently working as a dual rate poker supervisor at the Pechanga Casino in Southern California. He is a former roller hockey player and his team has won three world championship titles.
As mentioned above, the $565 Casino Employees took two days before the name of the champion was announced. Barnette started the nine-handed final table as the chip leader but faced tough competition throughout the play. At some point, he lost his lead to Greg Seiden, whom he faced in a heads-up play.
After two critical hands against Seiden, Barnette almost lost his chances for winning. During the heads-up, however, the California-based dealer regained his lead to eventually win the title. Barnette had a full house on what turned out to be the last hand in play.
As for Seiden, he received a consolation prize of $46,735 for his efforts. He is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he works as a teacher and a part-time poker dealer. Zachary Seufert, who currently works as a dealer in Ventura, California, finished 3rd to collect the amount of $30,382. It is interesting to note that the top seven finishers had never cashed or appeared at a final table of a WSOP-related event.
Last year’s WSOP $500 Casino Employees event attracted a field of 876 players to be topped by dealer Roland Reparejo.
Apart from the traditional events, this year, the WSOP is to debut some particularly exciting ones. For instance, the $565 Colossus No-Limit Hold’em with a guaranteed prize pool of $5 million is to kick off later today and will continue up to June 2.
