Michael Christ "Gets Lucky" On His Way to Winning Event #27: $1,500 Big O
The third and final day of Event #27: $1,500 Big O at the 2024 World Series of Poker has concluded. After three long days, the winner of his first gold bracelet and the top prize worth $306,884 is Michael Christ.
There were 1,555 entries into this tournament, creating a prize pool of $2,075,925 with 234 players making the money. There were 20 players left in the field to start Day 3, with Christ beating Matthew Beinner heads up.
Final Table Resuts
| Place | Player | Country | Prize |
| 1 | Michael Christ | United States | $306,884 |
| 2 | Matthew Beinner | United States | $204,601 |
| 3 | Dylan Lindsey | United States | $146,595 |
| 4 | Eduardo Lezcano | United States | $106,315 |
| 5 | Matthew Bretzfield | United States | $78,056 |
| 6 | Damjan Radanov | United States | $58,025 |
| 7 | Tomoki Matsuda | Japan | $43,681 |
| 8 | John Bunch | United States | $33,035 |
Notable Day 3 Exits
Legend of the game Sammy Farha was one of the 20 players to make it to Day 3, but Farha’s great run ended when he was eliminated in 11th place after Farha’s kings lost to Matthew Beinner aces in a three-way all-in preflop hand.
Bracelet winner Nathan Gamble also made it to Day 3, but hit the rail in 15th place after Farha rivered a straight against him.
The Road to the Gold
Of the 20 players who came back for Day 3 at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas, Christ was in third place, with 3,335,000 chips. Christ continued to chip up through the start of Day 3 when he found himself in a peculiar situation when he was all in and at risk in a hand versus Tomoki Matsuda on the turn.
Christ and Matsuda were two of the biggest stacks in the tournament when Christ raised all in with aces full of threes, only to find out Matsuda had aces full of sixes and his exit looking eminent. However, the river improved Christ to aces full of tens and allowed him to double up and become the chipleader of the tournament.
When asked about the hand, Christ said, "I knew he had the nuts, either having ace-six or ace-deuce-three type of hand for the low. I thought by going all in I could possibly get him off the low hand, but he didn't, and I got lucky." Christ said after the hand and numerous times throughout the tournament that his "mantra" is "play bad and get lucky."
Final Table Dominance
Christ used the momentum of the hand versus Matsuda right into the final table, where he came in with the chip lead. He held that lead through most of the final table and held almost half the chips when there were only four players remaining. Christ also eliminated five of his seven opponents at the final table on the way to winning the gold bracelet.
Winners Reaction
When Christ was asked about the journey of winning the event over the last three days, he said, "Absolutely exhausting," and that he tries to keep his "poker sessions between six to eight hours, so I'm literally pooped right now."
As far as the feeling of winning the bracelet goes, Christ said, "It's super surreal. That excitement hasn't really hit me yet. But never in a million years did I think it would be me as the last one standing."
When asked about his mentality or belief that he could win the tournament, Christ never let himself look at the finishing line, saying, " I chipped up to a goal number every single break. I never worry about my results, so winning the tournament was never my goal. I just played each hand individually to the best of my ability."
When Christ was asked about his plans for the rest of the series, he said, "I was thinking about the 10K Big O, but I told my wife if I won a bracelet, I would catch an early flight and meet up with her and the boys, so we'll see."
That concludes the coverage from Event #27, but be sure to follow PokerNews, as we will continue to provide live updates and coverage throughout World Series of Poker.