By Brett Collson for POKER NEWS DAILY Posted on June 30, 2009
Professional poker player Carsten Joh gave Germany its first World Series of Poker champion since Sebastian Ruthenberg’s 2008 win, when he won the $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em Event (#51) Monday evening. Joh outlasted a field of 2,781 to earn his first gold bracelet and $664,426.
Much like many of the previous $1,500 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em tournaments at the 2009 WSOP, this final table included no former WSOP gold bracelet winners. Joh claimed his first when he defeated Canadian Andrew Chen for the title.
An accomplished backgammon player, Joh competed in international backgammon tournaments and played in various clubs for many years. One of Joh’s friends from the backgammon tournaments was Danish poker player Gus Hansen. With Monday’s victory he now has one more WSOP bracelet than the prominent poker superstar.
“The bracelet means a lot because you have it for the rest of your life”, Joh said afterward. “Whatever you’ve got later on, you can always say you won a bracelet. Even if you stop playing poker – you just have it. If you come second, you really have nothing. You have the money. But nobody talks about that. It is just like that in sports. Everyone remembers the winner.”
At 45 years of age, Joh was the oldest player at the final table. Six of the nine players were age 27 and younger, and the youngest was 21-year-old Chen. Joh sent him home as the runner-up when Chen moved his remaining chips into the middle with after Joh raised from the button. Joh quickly called and flipped over pocket sixes. The flop didn’t give much hope to Chen but the on the turn gave him a flush draw. Joh then ended things when the fell on the river, giving him a set to eliminate Chen in 2nd place for $412,426.
On winning the tournament as the oldest player, Joh said: “Normally, the older players like me do not win the bracelet. You see every final table with six, seven, or eight players in their 20s. It is more difficult for an older player to win it. I have a lot of respect for the older players because you have to play ten levels and you might be here 13 or 14 hours each day.”