Lowball Rookie Christian Pham Takes Down $1,500 No-Limit 2-7
Playing No-Limit Deuce-To-Seven Lowball for the first time in his life after signing up for the wrong event, Minnesota-based Poker Pro Christian Pham went nearly wire-to-wire to win his first WSOP bracelet Thursday.
The 2015 WSOP Event #23: $1,500 No-Limit 2-7 Draw Lowball drew 219 entries and Pham led a group of 40 Day 1 survivors into Wednesday's Day 2. They played all the way down to three on Wednesday and again, Pham bagged the overnight lead. Thursday, he made short work of second and third-place finishers Daniel Ospina and Matthew Smith to collect the bracelet and the $81,314 first-place prize.
Pham told reporters he learned the game on the go after originally thinking he was entering a $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em event and only realized he was playing the wrong game after the cards were already in the air. In the end, he beat out a final table that included 1996 WSOP Main Event Champion Huck Seed and WSOP Bracelet Winner Mike Leah.
“I’d played lots of poker before, but not this game,” Pham said. “I guess I learned fast.”
Event #23 Final Table Results
Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Christian Pham | Saint Paul, MN | $81,314 |
2 | Daniel Ospina | Armenia, Colombia | $50,260 |
3 | Matthew Smith | Lithia, FL | $33,163 |
4 | Andrey Zhigalov | Mitischi, Russia | $22,634 |
5 | Huck Seed | Las Vegas, NV | $15,852 |
6 | Aleksandr Denisov | Russia | $11,385 |
7 | Mike Leah | Toronto, Canada | $8,381 |