This is beyond fairytale...

June 7, 2011, Posted by Ali.Masterman

Well we predicted big things from this year’s WSOP. We predicted a bracelet or two, a few final tables and a strong showing from team Pokerfarm. However we couldn’t have predicted that we would have 2 bracelets and a runner up finish within the first week of the series! It all started with Mr Jake Cody, battering his way through arguably the toughest field of the series and becoming the fastest and youngest person to ship a triple crown. Jake’s performance was exemplary and he showed huge maturity at such a young age - He was gracious, cool calm and collected and showed his true class throughout.

We celebrated long into the night (and the next day) and didn’t have time to go and buy some headache pills before news broke that The Pokerfarm were really making a mark on this WSOP - Jarred Solomon, Toby Lewis and Darren Kramer were all  going deep in the $10k pot limit holdem championship. At the same time in another tourney at the Rio, Pokerfarm’s Matt Perrins was starting to accumulate chips in the 2-7 draw lowball event.

The $10k PL event saw our 3 boys in the final 27. Darren Kramer lost a flip early to come 27th, and Toby’s jacks couldn’t hold in a huge pot one off the final. Fortunately Jarred Solomon had bulldozed his way to the final as chip leader. Surely we weren’t going to win back to back bracelets? It was as tough a final table lineup as you could expect, with the likes of Sam Stein, Stephen Chidwick and Nicholas Levi all involved. The rail was out in force for Jarred, although it wasn’t quite as loud as Jake’s rail a couple of nights before, probably due to the hangovers caused by it! Jarred is one of the nicest guys you could ever meet and it was fair to say that everyone that knew him would be rooting for him. The guy has a tremendous work ethic and is incredibly determined. It was testament to his hard work that Jarred was here again, at his 3rd WSOP final table, and ready to do the business.

It all started pretty well for Jarred and players started to tumble in quick succession - He was on the right end of a set over set encounter which propelled him up the chip counts and things were looking rosy. Unfortunately as we all know, poker is a brutal game and what it gives it can take away even quicker. From 5 handed down to headsup it only looked like there would be one winner. Amir Lehavot was having one of those days - Winning flips, making higher 2 pairs and generally running over the table. Jarred did amazingly well to get to the heads up stage, but the barrage continued and he valiantly finished 2nd for over $350,000. It was a great showing from Jarred and as much as he will beat himself up about not winning the bracelet, he fought incredibly hard and should be very proud of his performance (not to mention the 350 grand!).

So while Jarred was battling his demons in the pot limit championship another story was developing. Pokerfarm’s Matt Perrins had never played 2-7 draw lowball, and decided on Saturday that he would try and learn the game so he could play in event 9, the $1500 2-7 event.

What happened from there on in is boy’s own stuff. Matt himself admitted that he wasn’t 100% sure of the rules in the early stages, but as the tourney went on he found himself more comfortable with the dynamics of the game. His chip stack was getting bigger too, which was obviously a healthy sign. By day 3 he was chip leader going into the final table. You couldn’t make it up. So we were here again, ANOTHER final table. There was another big Pokerfarm rail and Matt was 9 players away from a bracelet in a game that he hardly knew. The competition was top draw. With the likes of Jason Mercier and Chris Bjorin sat at the table, Matt knew he would have to overcome some of the best 2-7 players with years of experience. Experience would count for nothing though, as Matt simply demolished the final. Using elements of his holdem knowledge, Matt was fearlessly aggressive and it wasn’t long before he was heads up with Chris Bjorin with an 11-1 chip lead! The writing was on the wall, and it didn’t take long before we had our second bracelet winner of the summer, defeating a field of 275 and picking up a cheque for just over $100k.

It was an incredible story, reinforced by the fact that Matt and Jake Cody are childhood friends and managed to ship bracelets within only a couple of days of each other. As you can imagine, there has been some serious partying going on at Pokerfarm HQ, and we’ve only just started. We’ll have more news as it comes in, not to mention some great features and interviews with the likes of Jake and Matt. Be sure to check out our videos, blogs and forum for the very latest happenings from Vegas. We’re off for some more headache pills in the meantime...