Schulman Also Joins Five-Bracelet Club at 2024 WSOP
Multiple bracelet winners will receive a lot of attention at the World Series of Poker, as per usual. It is often deserved, as it can be so difficult to win a WSOP bracelet, even now with hundreds of opportunities per year. The fields are larger than ever, and the level of skill has increased greatly over the years.
John Hennigan joined the seven-bracelet club at the beginning of this series, winning Event 7, coincidentally. The group of players with seven bracelets consists of only Hennigan, Men Nguyen, and Billy Baxter.
Not long after, Scott Seiver and Robert Mizrachi each won their fifth bracelet. That group of players is larger, consisting of those two players and Allen Cunningham, Scotty Nguyen, John Juanda, Daniel Alaei, Brian Yoon, David Chiu, Benny Glaser, Eli Elezra, John Monnette, Adam Friedman, Berry Johnston, Stu Ungar, and Gary Berland.
That five-bracelet club now has one more member: Nick Schulman.
Event 26: No Limit Hold'em This Time
Nick Schulman won his first WSOP gold bracelet in 2009, when he took down the $10K No Limit 2-7 Lowball Draw Championship. He won the same exact event in 2012 to grab his second bracelet, and he won the $10K PLO-8 event in 2019. Last year, he took down a $1,500 Seven-Card Stud event for number four.
This year, Schulman played quite a few events to start the 2024 WSOP, running deep in several of them, including the $10K Dealers Choice Championship and the $10K Limit Hold’em Championship. But he would do better in the $25K buy-in No Limit Hold’em High Roller.
Event 26 was that NLHE High Roller that played eight-handed. It set a new attendance record this year with the following numbers:
- Total entries: 318
- Total prize pool: $7,473,000
- Number of players paid: 48
- Minimum payout: $50,637
Schulman finished Day 1 in 31st chip position. At the end of Day 2, there were 19 players, and Schulman eighth in the chip counts.
Day 3 saw a cautious Schulman start the day, as he picked his spots and slowly chipped up, avoiding any massive pots. With 13 players remaining, Schulman had taken the chip lead, though he did start to get involved in some pots with David Stamm. He did maintain the chip lead going into the unofficial nine-handed final table, though, and quickly climbed above the 10 million-chip mark.
Shaun Deeb was hot on Schulman’s heels, as he was in search of his seventh bracelet. But Deeb then fell back as Noel Rodriguez challenged Schulman for the lead. It was then that Schulman and Rodriguez got involved in a huge pot, Schulman all-in with pocket queens against the A-K of Rodriguez. The queens held, and Schulman soared to 21M chips.
Dominating a Final Table
Rodriguez doubled back through Schulman a couple of times, as well as other players, Ultimately, Schulman lost some ground, though Deeb busted in eighth and then Schulman busted Yingui Li in seventh and Roberto Perez in sixth. Schulman was in control then, ousting Ben Heath in fifth place and Stamm in fourth.
After Dean Lyall exited in third place, Schulman took 40,625,000 chips into heads-up play against Rodriguez and his 7,075,000 chips.
It took only one hand for Rodriguez to shove, and he did it with J-2 of clubs on a T-8-2 flop with two clubs. Schulman called with T-4 offsuit for top pair, which stood up with sixes on the turn and river.
Schulman told PokerNews that the huge double-up through Rodriguez was the pivotal moment of the tournament. He said that commentating for so many high-level tournaments does help his own game, as he’s “actively engaged with every hand.”
After winning his FIFTH @WSOP bracelet, @DreaRenee_N caught up with @NickSchulman. pic.twitter.com/fEfSyQBjCK
— PokerGO (@PokerGO) June 12, 2024
*Feature photo credit: Hayley Hochstetler for PokerNews
