Calvin Anderson Latest to Join Five-Bracelet Club at 2024 WSOP
Yet another player joined the five-bracelet club at the 2024 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas. It started this summer with Scott Seiver and Robert Mizrachi, Nick Schulman and Yuri Dzivielevski. And now, Calvin Anderson has entered the club.
There are now 18 poker players who each hold five WSOP bracelets, and Anderson is proud to be among them. Event 88 found him at his third final table of the summer, which is an impressive feat in itself, but he went on to claim his first bracelet of this year and fifth of his career
Brand New Bracelet Event
There were a number of new events on the summer WSOP calendar this year, one of them being Event 88, a $10,000 buy-in Eight-Game Mixed Championship. The popularity of mixed games keeps growing, and the demand was there. This was evidenced by the 189 entries into this event.
After registration closed on Day 2, the numbers were:
- Total entries: 189
- Total prize pool: $1,757,700
- Paid players: 29 (min-cash of $20,214)
Calvin Anderson was one of the players who registered on Day 1 and built a sizable stack by the end of that night. He was fifth in chips when the clock stopped.
Play moved quickly on Day 2, as the field dwindled to just 37 players by the dinner break with Anderson climbing into the lead. The bubble played on for a very long time, though, but Viktor Blom finally exited after nearly 50 hands to burst that bubble. Play concluded a bit later, after names like Ben Yu and Brandon Shack-Harris hit the payout desk.
Final Day – or Days – of Play
Day 3 began with 22 survivors, but that number dropped as players like Connor Drinan, Chris Brewer, and Maxx Coleman departed. While Anderson started the day in the middle of the chip stacks, he gained some ground, notably with a substantial Omaha Hi-Lo pot he won from Gus Hansen and Tom Koral. Anderson then busted Yuri Dzivielevski in tenth place and crippled Hansen before eliminating him in eighth place.
Anderson had a large chip lead when the final seven took their seats at a single final table. He kept climbing, over 5M chips and then over 6M with his elimination of Andres Korn in seventh place.
Koral hit the rail in sixth place, and Anderson soared to 7.6M by ousting Paul Gunness in fifth. Mike Watson went home with a fourth-place finish under his belt, and Anderson stepped back in to bust Ali Eslami in third place.
Heads-up play began with Anderson holding 7.5M chips and Dai Ishibashi with 3.8M. When the sun started to rise, the two agreed to break for the night and resume with an unplanned Day 4. With nearly the same stacks, the two returned hours later to a determined Ishibashi but an even more tenacious Anderson.
Finally, in a PLO hand, Ishibashi risked his stack holding 9-7-4-2 on a J-8-5 flop, and Anderson had A-K-Q-9. The 8 and 5 completed the board, giving Anderson the win.
Calvin Anderson for his 5th bracelet at @wsop winning event 88 $10k 8 Game pic.twitter.com/IndLQsnGAZ
— MBerglund 📸 (@xmatthewbx) July 13, 2024
One Bracelet Worth Three
Anderson told PokerNews that his brand-new gold bracelet was worth three to him. “Five bracelets doesn’t mean any more than two or seven, you know, but this tournament is actually a bit more special, and I normally don’t say that. Just winning eight games, a $10K buy-in, this is a championship event.”
Further, he explained, “To win this is certainly a great accomplishment, what I set out to do. I have a lot of titles in different games, but then you throw them all in the mix and to navigate a field like this, it’s rewarding. It feels really good actually to accomplish something like that.”
Feature photo credit: Eloy Cabacas for PokerNews/WSOP 2024
