Brian Hastings Wins $10K Stud Hi-Lo Championship; Becomes 29th Player to Claim Five Bracelets ($352,958)
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The 2020 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Event #73: $10,000 Stud Hi-Lo Championship attracted 144 players, and after four days of split-pot action, Brian Hastings emerged victorious to claim the $352,958 first-place prize and his fifth career gold bracelet.
“I feel great. It’s hard to have it even sink in,” Hastings said after his victory. “I was just so focused on playing. I came into Day 4 fourth out of four, so I really wasn’t expecting it, but I’m really happy with how I played, happy with how I ran, and excited about it.”
By doing so, Hastings became just the 29th player in the WSOP’s more than five-decade history to win five bracelets. He joins the likes of Michael “The Grinder” Mizrachi, Brian Rast, Shaun Deeb, Scotty Nguyen, Stu Ungar, and more in the five-time bracelet club.
“I didn’t know the exact number, but I knew it wasn’t that many,” Hastings said when presented with the stat. “It definitely matters to me. I think it’s cool to compete on that level. There are some great players on the list of those with a bunch of bracelets. It’s certainly a goal of mine and I’m happy to be in that company.”
Hastings won his first bracelet back in 2012 in Event #12: $10,000 Heads-Up NLH Championship for $371,498. In 2015, he nabbed two more taking down Event #27: $10,000 Seven Card Stud Championship for $239,518 and Event #39: $1,500 10-Game Mix for $133,403, and in 2018 he prevailed in Event #76: $3,000 H.O.R.S.E. for $233,202. The latest win moved Hastings past the $4-million mark in lifetime tournament earnings.
It’s already been an impressive career for the 33-year-old married man and new father, and he’s still seven years away from even being eligible for the Poker Hall of Fame.
“I’m young enough that I haven’t thought about it too much but I think it’s a really cool thing,” he told PokerNews when asked about legacy. “It would be a huge honor and definitely something that would be really cool to me.”
2021 WSOP Event #73 Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Brian Hastings | United States | $352,958 |
| 2 | Ian O’Hara | United States | $218,144 |
| 3 | Yuval Bronshtein | Israel | $151,460 |
| 4 | Scott Seiver | United States | $107,967 |
| 5 | Marco Johnson | United States | $79,073 |
| 6 | John Monnette | United States | $59,545 |
| 7 | Erik Seidel | United States | $46,140 |
| 8 | Gary Benson | Australia | $36,821 |
Others to cash the tournament were current 2021 WSOP Player of the Year leader Josh Arieh (9th - $30,290), Shaun Deeb (13th - $22,536), Esther Taylor (15th - $20,426), Adam Owen (19th - $17,872), and Eli Elezra (22nd - $16,340).
Final Table Action
The final table was a stacked affair with 23 bracelets represented between the final eight players. Half of those fell in late on Day 3 including Gary Benson (8th - $36,821), Erik Seidel (7th - $46,140), John Monnette (6th - $59,545), and Marco Johnson (5th - $79,073).
The tournament was originally scheduled as a three-day event, but an extended fourth day was needed to accommodate the final four players. On Tuesday, a quartet of well-established poker pros returned to battle it out, each jostling with similar stacks during the first level of the day.
Upon returning from the first break, Scott Seiver found himself stuck in reverse before finally bowing out in fourth place when he missed a low draw against Ian O’Hara’s made flush. Not long after, the start-of-day chip leader Yuval Bronshtein saw his quest for a third bracelet come to an end when he was dispatched by O’Hara in third place.
O’Hara took a slight chip lead into heads-up play against Hastings, but the latter drew first blood to even things out. Eventually, Hastings picked up some momentum and slowly chipped away at his opponent. O’Hara, who was seeking his first career bracelet, staved off elimination for a while, but eventually, he missed a low against Hasting’s sixth-street flush to fall in second place.
Hastings concluded: “It’s been a long time for this for me. I think I started playing mixed games in 2008 or 2009. At the time I was playing the big no-limit and PLO games and I saw some of the players I was playing with doing the mixed games. I thought it looked interesting and started to learn that. It’s kind of snowballed from there.”
Congratulations to Brian Hastings, winner of the 2021 WSOP Event #73: $10,000 Stud Hi-Lo Championship!
