Jean-Robert Bellande captured last night his first WSOP gold bracelet after two previous near misses. The player claimed the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed title at Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino after four days of play. His gold piece was accompanied by a hefty payout of $616,302.
Bellande had two previous runner-up finishes in WSOP tournaments. In 2008, the player finished second to Matt Graham in the $1,500 Limit Hold’em Shootout. Of that first near miss, the player said that he was 19-1 ahead of his heads-up opponent at some point in two-handed play, but the title eventually eluded him.
In 2015, Bellande nearly bested the elite field of the $50,000 Poker Players Championship, but had to settle for the runner-up finish and the consolation prize of $784,828 after losing to Mike Gorodinsky.
In this year’s $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em 6-Handed, Bellande bested a field of 621 entries over four days of play. The tournament’s field generated a prize pool of nearly $2.9 million. The top 94 places paid, with payouts starting from $7,390. Each of the six final tablists was guaranteed a minimum cash of $85,570.
The final day of the tournament saw six finalists return at the host casino to play the final table and determine the champion. The pack of six was led by none other but Bellande who had a comfortable advantage over everyone else left in contention. The player had a total of 5.05 million when cards were thrown in the air for a final day of action. Dean Lyall was second in chips at that point with 2.7 million.
Final Table Action
It took fewer than 30 hands before the start-of-the-day field was reduced to just three players – Bellande, Lyall, and Andrew Graham. The final three were actually positioned in that order on the temporary chip counts chart when three-handed play began.
From that point on, chips swung back and forth at the final table of the $5,000 tournament for hours and over 100 hands. Bellande never really relinquished the chip lead during that time. Then, on Hand #136, Graham was eliminated to leave it to Bellande and Lyall to determine the champ.
Heads-up kicked off with Bellande holding 10.4 million in chips to Lyall’s 5.2 million, precisely a 2-1 chip advantage. Lyall was down to just 2.7 million within the next few hands. While it seemed as if the match would not last much longer, Lyall doubled through his opponent to improve significantly and reduce the gap.
At some point, the eventual runner-up took control over the majority of chips in play to put Bellande in a dangerous position. The lead switched hands on a couple occasions, before an eight-hand winning streak helped Bellande regain momentum and never look back.
The two players battled it out for nearly 100 hands before clashing one last time. Hand #228 of the final table turned out to be the final one dealt. Lyall shoved for his 4.36 million and Bellande called quickly.
Lyall tabled [As][3d] to his opponent’s [Qd][Qd]. A [10d][9h][3c] appeared on the turn to pair the player’s three. However, the [6c] turn and the [4c] river were of little help to Lyall and he hit the rail in second place, good for $380,595.
Of his triumph, Bellande said he was really happy to have finally won a gold bracelet and that the fact he did that by taking down a No-Limit Hold’em tournament made it all the more special, as No-Limit Hold’em has never been his best game.
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