Christopher Vitch, a cash game poker player from Phoenix, Arizona, has just joined the WSOP champions club, winning his first gold bracelet ever. Apart from the shiny WSOP gold piece, he also added $136,854 to his poker bankroll for besting the field of the $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball (Limit) tournament.
Vitch started his poker career more than 13 years ago by playing mainly Limit Hold’em online. Several years later, the Triple Draw Lowball format was introduced and the player focused his attention on that new poker game. He soon became proficient in a variant that was not even that popular out there. Now Vitch boasts more than 10 years of experience in playing the game and may well be called one of the world’s Triple Draw Lowball top specialists.
As mentioned above, the player has mainly played cash games over the years. It was only last year when he got the WSOP thrill in his blood and decided that he should take part in more tournaments on the Series’ schedule. During the 2015 edition of the popular poker competition, Vitch entered 16 different events, which can be quite an exhausting experience for a cash game player.
He has come really close to winning a gold bracelet on several occasions but last night was his lucky one. Shortly after his victory, Vitch commented that he was really happy to eventually win the gold piece and that playing in the WSOP was not about the money but the gold bracelet.
The $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw Lowball debuted on this year’s edition of the Series and included 3 variants, with those being A-5 Triple Draw Lowball, 2-7 Triple Draw Lowball, and Badugi. They were played in a Limit format. The event drew 236 entries who played over three days. The overall prize pool totaled $536,900 and the top 36 players were paid their share.
There were 7 players to return for Day 3 of the tournament. Although Vitch was third in chips at that point, he had the skills and the patience to take the chip lead and to eventually emerge as the tournament’s victor.
His moment of triumph came against heads-up opponent Siegfried Stockinger from Austria. The two players played 2-7 Triple Draw at the time when the tournament’s final hand occurred.
Stockinger raised and and Vitch called. On the first draw, Vitch collected two and the Austrian took three. Vitch bet to see his opponent call. On draw number two, the eventual champion took one and Stockinger took two. Vitch bet and his Austrian opponent called, going all in. On the last draw, Vitch took one and Stockinger took two. Vitch showed [7x][5x][3x][2x][Ax]. As for Stockinger, he turned [3x][4x] and then paired the four
David Gee from Gilbert, Arizona collected $55,511 for taking 3rd place in the tournament. Damjan Radanov from Memphis, Tennessee finished 4th for $37,375. Michael Shiffman from Henderson, Nevada took 5th place, good for $25,830. Australian Gary Benson hit the rail in 6th place for $18,336. Anthony Lazar from Maple Grove, Minnesota finished 7th for $13,380.
