Chris Moorman Captures First Gold Bracelet in $3,000 6-Max Event
One of the most prolific hold'em players of this generation finally has his first gold bracelet. The United Kingdom's Chris Moorman is the 2017 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold'em 6-Handed champion.
Moorman, who has over $14 million in career online earnings, will add $498,682 to an impressive $4,628,200 in career live-recorded tournament earnings. Moorman defeated Brazilian Bernardo Dias heads-up after a battle between the two that lasted over three hours.
| Place | Name | Country | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Chris Moorman | United Kingdom | $498,682 |
| 2 | Bernardo Dias | Brazil | $308,166 |
| 3 | Michael Gagliano | United States | $210,139 |
| 4 | Steve Sung | United States | $145,634 |
| 5 | John Gorsuch | United States | $102,605 |
| 6 | Max Silver | United Kingdom | $73,510 |
Though Moorman has had a stellar WSOP career, the gold bracelet is really the only thing that had eluded him. Moorman previously had four final table appearances including two runner-up finishes in 2011. This marks his 30th career WSOP cash which now totals $2,433,640.
When asked how this accomplishment compared to his online feats, Moorman responded with, "I feel like anytime you win live, it's just a lot more real. All your friends are there celebrating with you and particularly a lot of my online success was when I was living in the U.K. I would be playing all through the night and maybe win a tournament about five or six in the morning and I would just be there on my own."
Moorman went on to say, "The series is still young, there are plenty of more events out there. I've already had three cashes, including this one, and I feel great and confident. Hopefully, I can make a final table and if not, hopefully, some more Brits do and I can be on the rail and support them and I would be just as happy, to be honest."
Moorman came into play on Day 3 sitting fourth in chips behind fellow countryman Max Silver. Before the final table got underway, there was still business to be completed. There were 21 hopefuls return on and some big names fell before the action moved to the grand stage. Nacho Barbero (19th - $18,019), Samantha Cohen (17th - $23,029), Simeon Naydenov (16th - $23,029), James Chen (14th - $23,029), and Pratyush Buddiga (11th - $29,974) are just some of the players Moorman slid past en route to his win.
Silver led for the majority of this event and was set to take the chip lead again getting his stack in the middle against Michael Gagliano. Silver had the best of it with pocket kings against pocket queens but a queen on the flop gave the pot to Gagliano and Silver was first to drop.
After Moorman had doubled up and taken a huge lead, John Gorsuch tested his luck and though he got it in bad being dominated by the eventual champion, Gorsuch flopped two pair. The river, however, had other ideas and gave Moorman a better two pair and Gorsuch was eliminated.
Moorman took out arguably his biggest threat in two-time bracelet winner Steve Sung. Sung had the chip lead for the early stages of Day 3 but got it in with ace-seven against Moorman’s pocket queens and though he hit an ace on the flop, there was a queen right behind it, sending him to the rail in fourth.
A battle of the short stacks came to a conclusion when Dias put Gagliano at risk. Gagliano’s ace-eight was in rough shape against the Brazilian’s pocket eights and no help from the board set up the heads-up battle.
Dias and Moorman played almost a hundred hands before the latter was able to finish the former off for good. Moorman kept hold of the chip lead the entire battle but could not keep the Brazilian down. Staving off elimination for the better part of four hours, on Hand #132, Moorman finally closed the curtain. Dias open-jammed with king-ten and Moorman snap-called with ace-king. The board ran true and Chris Moorman was awarded his first WSOP gold bracelet.