Larry Wright has won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet, the first in his poker career, playing the $1.5k NL Deuce-to-seven Single Draw Lowball tournament. He has also added a sum of $101,975 to his poker bankroll and received 456 Player of the Year (POY) points.
The poker player had to defeat eminent poker stars such as Brandon Cantu, Michael Mizrachi, Erick Lindgren, and Andrew Lichtenberger to win his first WSOP gold bracelet. The match ended in a heads-up between Brandon Cantu and Larry Wright, in which Wright emerged as the last man standing.
An overjoyed Wright said,
I got in a zone. I didn’t want to gamble. I didn’t want to re-raise with drawing hands, I just played a trapping game. Every time he (Brandon Cantu) got out of line, I would snap him off. I had to wait for a few of the stars to get out of the way, and when they wiped each other out, I switched gears.
Wright is a 58-year-old rancher who raises cattle in McQueeney, South Texas when he is not playing poker. So far, he has won cash thrice at the WSOP tables and has earned more than $500k playing poker tournaments. Speaking about his association with poker, Mr. Wright said,
I started playing razz in 1975 at the Stardust. I played triple draw then, and then no limit starting coming around. I met Tom McEvoy and he changed my life and got me into playing no limit.
Wright is also a philanthropist and plans to give up most of his WSOP poker winnings for charitable causes in Sudan, Africa. He intends to sponsor a well and two houses through his missionary friend there.
When Wright was defeating top poker pros such as John Phan, Erik Seidel, Bryan Devonshire, Erick Lindgren, Michael Mizrachi, and others, his friends and family members were watching him. Brandon Cantu, the player who Wright defeated in the heads-up, won 380 POY Points and $63,048.
Voicing his opinion that the event was not one of the biggest, Wright said that “it was a who’s who field” and added that he stayed patient and it looked like he was meant to win the bracelet and the championship title on Fathers’ Day.
The players who finished third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth were Andrew Lichtenberger ($41,445), Michael Mizrachi ($28,198), Erick Lindgren ($19,676), Rep Porter ($14,078), Ryan Tepen ($10,318), and John Phan ($7,748).
