Mark Schmid, the Michigan poker pro who plays online under the name PimpinDonks, won Event #34, the $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em, tournament taking home $488,283. For Schmid, who coaches at Sharkscopers, this marks his sixth World Series of Poker cash and first bracelet.
Day 1 began on Monday with a massive player pool of 3,144 entrants, by day three there were only 27 players to start the day. Schmid got into some tough situations but was able to stay aggressive and most importantly, survive.
Mark Schmid came into the final table as the chip leader with 2.5 Million chips. A few bad beats later and it was Joseph Cohen who held the chip lead. Going into heads up it was Coehn with the 3:1 chip lead.
The key hand of the match came when all the money went in on a turn of Ks 8h 6c flop Js. Schmid held Kc 9s for top pair versus Cohen with Jh 8s. It looked like Cohen would take the bracelet for sure, until the river five outer came to give Schmid a 5.62 Million versus 3.81 Million chip lead.
“It all comes down to making the right decisions,” Schmid said after his win. “There are wild swings in tournament poker. All you can do is make the best possible EV (expected value) decision and hope for the best. It all worked out for me tonight.”
Twenty four events remaining in the WSOP 2011!