EVENT #65: $1,500 buy-in Seven Card Stud High-Low Split
ENTRIES: 547
PRIZE POOL: $738,450
FIRST PLACE PRIZE: $180,943
PLACES PAID: 56
DATES: July 2-5, 2015
Gerald Ringe Wins $1,500 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split Eight-or-Better Title
Third Winner from England Crowned at 2015 WSOP
Ringe’s Latest Victory Includes $180,943 in Prize Money Plus WSOP Gold Bracelet
MEET THE LATEST WSOP GOLD BRACELET CHAMPION:
Name: Gerald Ringe
Birthplace: London (England)
Current Residence: London (England)
Profession: Real Estate Investor and Businessman
Number of WSOP Cashes: 3
Number of WSOP Final Table Appearances: 1
Number of WSOP Gold Bracelet Victories: 1
Best Previous WSOP Finish: 12th (2012)
Total WSOP Earnings: $192,888
Personal Facts: Ringe routinely plays in high-stakes mixed games formats, which he says explains his victory in this event
[Note: All statistics above include the results of this tournament]
Las Vegas (July 5, 2015) — Gerald Ringe, from London, became the third player from England to win a gold bracelet at the 2015 World Series of Poker. He won the $1,500 buy-in Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split event on the final weekend before the start of the WSOP Main Event Championship.
Ringe made a mockery of the fourth and final day of competition, destroying his final two opponents in about 35 minute’s time. Ringe admitted that the deck him in during the final stages of the tournament, which was just the right time to catch a hot run of cards.
“Whatever I needed today, I managed to catch it,” Ringe said afterward. “Even when it looked like my opponent would scoop a big pot, I caught the perfect card and managed to split the pot. Everything went right today.”
Event #65 was the 65th of 68 events on the 2015 WSOP schedule. The $1,500 Seven-Card Stud High-Low Split tournament drew a field 547 players, generating a $738,450 prize pool. The tournament began Thursday, July 2 and ran four consecutive days finishing Sunday, July 5.
Ringe is a part-time poker player, but is quite serious about the game when he’s engaged. He routinely sits in some of the biggest cash games in London, usually played at the Victoria Club (a.k.a. “The Vic). Ringe often plays in Mixed Game formats, which includes a healthy mix of High-Low Split games. Ringe also recently started his own investment company, which specializes in real estate.
Rings’ previous poker experience includes lots of cash games, online play, and tournaments, mostly in Europe. This marked his third time to cash at the series, with his best previous run being a 12th-place showing three years ago.
The champion dressed in a full white summer coat and pants, in the manner and style of Mark Twain. He was customarily reserved about the victory, showing little emotion, yet did which to convey his satisfaction and excitement.
“This was good fun,” he said. “Now, let’s move on to the next one.”
Following Ringe’s finish in the top spot, the order of results was as follows:
Second Place: Christopher Vitch hoped to win his first WSOP victory. Instead, he took second and collected a nice consolation prize amounting to $111,860. This was Vitche’s deepest run at the series, to date. He now was 11 cashes on his resume, and 3 final table appearances. Vitch is a coach at the popular poker website, DeucesCracked.com.
Third Place: Daniel Idema, fresh off his third gold bracelet victory a few weeks earlier, finished in 3rd place and collected $70,322 in prize money. The Vancouver (Canada)-based poker pro cashed for the 27th time at the series, and now has nearly $1.5 million in career earnings.
Fourth Place: Noah Bronstein is 28-years-old and resides in Bellevue, Wash. The professional poker player’s 24th career cash WSOP came in the form of a fourth-place finish and earned him $50,473. He now sits comfortably over $350,000 in career earnings at the WSOP.
Fifth Place: The tournament’s fifth-place finisher was gold bracelet winner John Esposito. Esposito, who’s 61-years-old and was born in Chicago, now claims 30 career cashes at the WSOP and more than $1,100,000 in earnings. Contributing to those totals are seven WSOP Main Event cashes including an 11th-place finish in 1989, a 12th-place finish in 1995 and a 32nd-place finish in 2011 good for $242,636. The former bar owned turned poker pro earned $36,811 in Event #65. He is married with three children.
Sixth Place: Owais Ahmed, best known for his 2011 gold bracelet victory in an Omaha High-Low Split recorded his 17th career WSOP cash. His sixth-place finish marked the 31-year-old pro’s second final table appearance of the 2015 series and earned him $27,285. Ahmed was born in Karachi, Pakistan and now resides in Anaheim, Calif. His poker insights can be heard during his appearances as a commentator for Live at the Bike.
Seventh Place: John Cover busted seventh earning $20,551. The cash marked Cover’s sixth WSOP-related in-the-money finish and second final table appearance. He is 68-years-old and resides in San Bernadino, CA. He is married with one daughter.
Eighth Place: Following his eighth-place finish, Chris George of Croton on Hudson, NY has recorded a final table appearance in each of his last seven WSOP cashes. The 28-year-old professional poker player earned $15,721 bringing his career earnings at the WSOP to nearly $720,000. He is still without a gold bracelet.
OTHER IN-THE-MONEY FINISHERS:
Aside from the final table finishers, other gold bracelet winning players who cashed included; Eric Rodawig (9th, $12,213) John Monnette (12th, $9,636), Todd Brunson (13th $7,716), Jesse Martin (14th, $7,716), Vladimir Shchemelev (15th, $6,269), Naoya Kihara (34th, $3,670) and Randy Ohel (19th, $5,169).
FUN FACTS:
There were 513 males and 34 females in this event.
There were 450 American players and 97 players from other nations in this event. Out of 34 total countries who had participants, Russia was the nation with the second-most players at 15, followed by Canada and the United Kingdom with 14.