“This bracelet is worth three”: Calvin Anderson joins the five-timer club

July 14, 2024
4 minutes reading time

After two podium finishes in the summer at the The World Series of Poker 2024, Calvin Anderson had to sleep one night longer as chip leader, Event No. 88: $10,000 Eight-Match Mixed Championship.

The additional day 4 in The World Series of Poker 2024 paid off for the American professional, as he prevailed against a difficult field of 189 players and won the fifth bracelet of his career and the main prize of 413,446 USD At the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.

Anderson returned for another day against Japan’s Dai Ishibashiwith a sizable chip lead in pursuit of another WSOP title. He needed less than a single 90-minute level to get there, leaving his rail cheering while Anderson just took it in stride.

“I have never won a major eight-game tournament, this used to be the players’ championship,” said Anderson PokerNews after his victory. “Winning this is certainly a great achievement, that was my goal. I have a lot of titles in different games, but when you put them all together, it’s rewarding to compete in a field like this. It feels really good to actually achieve something like this.”

Results of the final table of the $10,000 mixed eight-match championship

The third time is the charm

Anderson had already secured his third final table of the summer and was almost two to one ahead of Ishibashi. After a third place in Event No. 10: $10,000 Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship (8-Handed) and a second place in Event #37: $10,000 Big O ChampionshipAnderson was able to win one of the most important titles of his career.

“I’m happy, excited, I’m happy I won,” Anderson said after posing for victory photos. “If I had lost heads-up, given how much I’ve played and how much experience I have, I would have been disappointed – after all, I had a two-to-one chip lead and I’ve played these games so many times.”

With this win, Anderson now has five WSOP gold bracelets in total, but this one seemed to stand out a little bit. “Five bracelets don’t mean any more than two or seven, you know, but this tournament is actually special, and I don’t usually say that.”

Anderson took a moment to explain how grateful he was for the title. “Eight games won, a 10,000 buy-in, that’s a championship event.”

“You play a lot of different games against all the top players. I played against a lot of really, really good players throughout the game. I ran well, but I think I played really well too. There are a lot of situations where I’m super happy with the way I played. It feels good to do everything right.”

Anderson then finished his thought by saying, “This bracelet is probably worth three to me.”

Day 4 Action

Anderson and Ishibashi returned to the table with at least $271,351. The event had a total prize pool of $1,757,700 with the main prize of 413,446 USD has yet to be decided.

After Anderson extended his chip lead, both players knew what games to target. “He played well and held his own for the most part. At the end, he knew, I knew, everyone knew, that he had to play high variance in no-limit and PLO games, and even limit hold’em is a big game.”

“In PLO I just limped, in Hold’em I played pretty damn passively,” Anderson continued, “although I was usually actually bullying the other people in those games throughout the tournament.”

“On the last hand of the day, I didn’t want to come in with ace-king-queen-nine, but he knew he had to take a risk. Maybe my hand was a little better than I thought, but I just don’t want to be in a situation where I can read the hand that well in every other game.”

On that final hand, Anderson was surprised to be ahead on the flop when the chips hit the middle, and held his hand to end Ishibashi’s run.

Just minutes after winning the title, Anderson was already looking forward to his next event. “The summer is long, I don’t party like other people, but the journey is so rewarding for me, playing, winning. I’m happy.”

This concludes our coverage of this championship event. Stay tuned for PokerNews for ongoing coverage of the WSOP Main Event from the Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas.