Major tournament titles. Multiple seven-figure scores. And more than $4.5 million in live tournament cashes.
But a WSOP bracelet had still eluded him. In fact, Le had never even made a WSOP final table. Until yesterday, that is, when he knocked both off his list in one go.
“[The WSOP bracelet] was really elusive and it felt like I could’ve won it a few times but I didn’t play as well as I could,” Le said in his post-victory interview.
Now it’s done though, and it was no easy feat.
“I mean, this final table was as tough as it could possibly be,” Le said.
Deadly Final Table; Another Near Miss for Bonomo
There wasn’t any hyperbole to that statement. The final table of the $10k 2-7 Triple Draw Championship had Justin Bonomo, Eli Elezra, Nick Schulman, George Danzer and Phil Galfond.
Every final-table player had earned more than $1m in live tournaments and half own WSOP bracelets. Both Elezra and Schulman have one for each wrist.
While three knew the taste of WSOP victory, Le, Bonomo and Danzer were in the hunt for their first. Danzer was the first braceletless player to go, however, and was eliminated in 5th.
Then the bracelet earners fell and it was a battle between Le and Bonomo.
While this was Le’s first WSOP final table Bonomo had come close to WSOP gold so many times. Before the $10K 2-7 Championship Bonomo had one 5th-place finish, two 4th-place finishes and two 2nd-place finishes at the WSOP.
One of those runner-up finishes was at another 2-7 event, the $2,500 2-7 Triple Draw back in 2011. Now Bonomo had another chance at 2-7 redemption as he made it heads-up to this year's championship with the chip lead.
Bonomo then lost the lead in the first few hands of play and never gained it back. He didn’t go down easy, as the two battled for nearly three hours, but the cards just fell in Le’s favor.
“Things just went awfully well,” Le said. “I could’ve been on the other side of hands that could’ve knocked me out but I was on the right side. The final-table results and payouts:
1. Tuan Le $355,324 2. Justin Bonomo $219,565 3. Eli Elezra $144,056 4. Nick Schulman $99,015 5. George Danzer $70,308 6. Phil Galfond $51,538
"Right Now I'll Take the Bracelet"
While Le’s biggest results have come in No-Limit Hold’em, he’s no stranger to the lowball game.
“This is the one I play at home, in all our mixes. I’ve played this game for a very long time now but it’s my first time playing this particular event, 2-7, World Series wise.
"Generally I never play that many events all-in-all. This year I just said hey I’ll give it a shot and gave it my all and it all worked out.”
Now that Le’s got a good result to start off the summer, he might be taking a few more chances.
“It’s really exhausting, you gotta pace yourself and treat it like a marathon. It sounds really clicheish but it’s really true,” Le said.
“Truth be told, if I would’ve gotten knocked out yesterday before the bubble I wouldn’t have played today. I don’t care what the tournament was.
"I don’t know how they do it, but it’s not for me. Now that we got a little bit of momentum I might do it.”
As for the bracelet, Le’s finally glad to get it out of the way but he’s not sure what he liked winning more, the money or the bracelet.
“I don’t know, it depends on what day you ask me,” Le laughed. “Right now I’ll take the bracelet. Ask me one year from now and I might say the money.”
More from the WSOP including live reports as Phil Hellmuth goes for his 14th career bracelet right here.
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