Jerry Wong Wins His First WSOP Bracelet In Marathon Razz Event

It took a day longer than expected, but Jerry Wong claimed his first WSOP bracelet by winning the $10K Razz event. He beat out the likes of Talal Shakerchi, John Hennigan, and Bryce Yockey on a stacked final table, before eventually beating Carlos Chadha heads up to take home the bracelet and just shy of $300,000 in winnings.

It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

WSOP tournaments are known for their fantastic structure, giving players plenty of play for their buy-in. Well, the final three of the $10K Razz event certainly got their money’s worth, as they had to come back for an unscheduled fourth day to play out the rest of the final table.

The final table got down to three-handed play at about the speed you’d expect and at that point, no one expected the event would last as long as it did. Three-handed play lasted several hours before the tournament director had to call time, meaning that Wong, Chandha, and Moncek would all have to come back for a fourth day to battle it out for the bracelet. Even when play resumed on the fourth day, it took several hours to crown a champion.

Having finished eighth in the 2016 Main Event, Jerry Wong knows what it’s like to run deep in a marathon tournament, and it’s likely that experience gave him an edge over his opponents. He also has experience playing long hours in high-stakes cash games, something that he attributed to his success in this tournament and during heads-up play. Speaking on the reasons for his success, Jerry said, “I've played a lot of cash games, and I don't think either of these two guys had a lot of experience. I played the Russians heads-up on PokerStars for probably 10 years. Heads-up is very, very natural to me.”

A Long Time Coming

Jerry Wong is a name that you’ll often see on a list of “Best Players Never To Win A Bracelet,” having made 11 WSOP final tables in his thirteen years of World Series play. Before today, Jerry had two second-place finishes and a third-place finish to his name, with two of those second places coming in the last two years. It seemed as if Jerry would always be the bridesmaid and never the bride, but he finally pushed himself over the winning line in this event.

When asked what winning his first WSOP bracelet meant to him, Jerry said, “I'm kind of speechless,” “What I want to say is hello, Frisco, and give a shout-out to all my guys in Florida.”

Watching him in the aftermath of the event, you could tell that finally winning a WSOP bracelet meant a lot to Jerry. Now that he’s gotten the proverbial monkey off his back, who knows how many more bracelets he could win? If he continues to play like he has been so far, there’s no reason why he couldn’t bag a couple more in the coming years.

Event #3 $10,000 Razz Final Table Results

Will Jerry use this maiden WSOP win as a springboard to take down another bracelet by the end of the series, and can the veterans of poker keep racking up bracelets this year? Stay tuned for all the latest WSOP news and events.

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