Chris Bell, WSOP Bracelet Winner
Chris Bell, a professional poker online player from Raleigh, N.C., won the $5,000 Pot-Limit Omaha High-Low Split championship on Monday morning to take home a WSOP (sponsored by Everest Poker) gold bracelet and $327,040 in first-place prize money. This marked Bell’s first career WSOP gold bracelet victory, following several noteworthy wins and cashes in other major poker online tournaments, as well as brutally disappointing stretches of failure. Bell earned a well-deserved and long overdue victory, for which he collected $327,040 in prize money. Bell faced Dan Shak heads up for the title. Shak, a Bryn Mawr, Pa., resident, has been playing poker seriously for about six years. Shak’s biggest victory took place earlier this year when he won the Aussie Millions Championship, and he also was the co-winner of the inaugural Ante-Up for Africa charity tournament in 2007, as he and Brandon Moran donated the entire cash prize for first and second place to international relief effort in Darfur. Bell overcame a 2.5-to-1 chip deficit when he was heads-up against Shak. The final duel lasted about 90 minutes and ended when Shak was all in with flush and low draws. Bell, however, had a lock for the high with a full house, and dodged the low draw to secure the title. Shak’s second-place result netted him $202,142. Dave “Devilfish” Ulliott, a former WSOP bracelet winner from Hull, England, finished third to win $150,925, while Joe Ritze, from Hamilton, Ohio was fourth for $113,444. Eight-time gold bracelet winner Erik Seidel, from Las Vegas, Nev., was fifth, Leif Force, from Tallahassee, Fla., was sixth, former gold bracelet winner Rob Hollink, from Groningen, Holland, was seventh, three-time bracelet winner Perry Green, from Anchorage, Alaska, was eighth, and Jeremy Harkin, from Troutdale, Ore., was ninth. The top 27 finishers in the 284-player field collected prize money. Aside from those who made the final table, former WSOP gold bracelet finishers who cashed in this event included “Miami” John Cernuto (12th), Dan Heimiller (19th), and Barry Greenstein (24th).

