Farha Beats Dempsey In Marathon

After a marathon five hour heads-up battle with UK pro James Dempsey, Sam Farha has won event #25, $10,000 Omaha High-Low Split at the 2010 WSOP. It is Farha’s third bracelet, his last one coming in the same event in 2006.

Despite being more famous for his cash game exploits on High Stakes Poker and inside Bobby’s Room, Farha now has amassed over $2.8m in career tournament winnings. He was understandably delighted with his win, saying, ‘this is very special, of course. Anytime you can beat a tough field, it’s special.’

Farha was made to sweat for his title by Dempsey, who came into the heads-up at a huge chip deficit but managed to survive for five hours – even drawing level in the chip counts at one point. Dempsey had made headlines less than two weeks before by winning a bracelet for himself in the $1,500 Pot Limit Hold’em event. If he had managed to win yesterday, he would have been the first UK player to ever win two WSOP bracelets at the same series.

Despite the marathon slog heads-up Farha insists that he stayed focused on securing the win: ‘I was never frustrated. And normally, I do get frustrated. I did not get a good night’s sleep last night. I was a little bit frustrated because the audience was so loud. They were out of line a bit, but it was fun. It was fun in the beginning, but after a while you get tired. But it never bothered me.’

Farha was referring to Dempsey’s boisterous fans on the rail – including fellow UK stars Chris Moorman and Paul Foltyn – that attempted to keep the Brit’s hopes up with football chants and copious amounts of drinking. Despite their best efforts however, it was Farha who managed to win the war.