Lester wins Pot-Limit

When Jason Lester walks into any poker room, everyone seems to recognize him. He’s been playing in poker tournaments for twenty years. He’s cashed 16 times at the World Series of Poker, and made six final table appearances.

He was part of poker’s biggest story ever when Chris Moneymaker rocked the world and won the 2003 championship event. Lester finished fourth that year. Had a few key hands gone the other way, perhaps it would have been Lester’s day and he’d be a world champion. But alas, that’s poker.

Lester added his name to this year’s memorable list of tournament winners — players who had previously been members of the WSOP’s supporting cast, while others got the starring roles. Sammy Farha, David Williams, Chip Reese, Mike Sexton, John Gale, and now Jason Lester have all slain the poker demons of years past with gold bracelet victories.

The Pot-Limit Hold’em championship was played over a three-day period. It took two long days to eliminate 369 players. The nine finalists returned to the Rio poker stage on Day Three. The final table consisted of several players with high-stakes experience. However, none had previously won a WSOP title.

Alan Sass, a.k.a. “The Usher” was the runner up. The 23-year-old poker pro from Las Vegas collected $284,256.

“I’m so happy, it’s such a relief to win this,” Lester said in a post-tournament interview. “I’ve been playing at the World Series for twenty years and to finally win this it’s such a validation for all those years and all those beats, and all the times where I think I could have won a gold bracelet.”

Lester collected $550,746 in prize money. “My background in game theory is really what got me here,” Lester answered when asked to assess his reasons for victory. “It’s my strategic skills. I play backgammon, chess, and other games and I eventually got into poker because it became so big. My win here really is the summation of all those things that came together – from experience, knowing the math, from my own style.”

“I will be playing the main event next week,” Lester concluded. “Now, when I sit down, I am going to have more confidence and a renewed table presence. That’s what winning (a WSOP gold bracelet) does for you.”

Event #32
$5,000 Pot-Limit Hold’em
Final table results:

1. Jason Lester, Miami, FL, $550,764
2. Alan Sass, Las Vegas, NV, $284,256
3. Stuart Fox, Birmingham, UK, $142,128
4. Tony Hartmann, Minneapolis, MN, $124,362
5. Michael Tedesco, Menlo Park, CA, $106,596
6. Gregg Turk, Sterling, VA, $88,830
7. Emad Tahtouh, Melbourne, Australia, $71,064
8. Tom Smith, St. Cloud, MN, $53,298
9. Kirill Gerasimov, Moscow, Russia, $35,532