Jason Somerville’s first live tournament win earned him a WSOP gold bracelet.

Poker players love to talk about variance when the cards don’t come their way. Jason Somerville has experienced this several times during his World Series of Poker career, with four top-five finishes without a victory. An all-star rail highlighted by Daniel Negreanu and Jason Mercier motivated Somerville to make a surge in the closing stages to defeat Yashar Darian heads-up, winning $493,091.

“It really feels good having my friends here to support me”, Somerville said. “Especially to see Jason and Daniel doing really well, and I’ve never gotten first in a tournament, but I had a lot of success online in fields as large as this. Jason and Daniel are really special live players.”

Event 20 of the World Series of Poker, $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em resumed Tuesday afternoon with 26 players vying for a coveted gold bracelet. Tim West, Lex Veldhuis and Valdemyar Kwaysser fell short of making the final table, leaving Somerville as the player with the most career tournament earnings.

“I didn’t plan anything in advance, I went in expecting to play a lot of small pots. I was the only person with any tournament experience, I knew I had a big skill edge over the rest of the table. so I didn’t want to risk all my chips. This was the first time in my life I made a live tournament final table where I didn’t know anyone outside of playing them in the last 18 and it obviously worked out really well.”

The first hand at the official final table saw the dismissal of the lone bracelet winner remaining. James Schaaf held TT against the A9 of Diana Allen, and the flop brought another ace for Allen. Schaaf picked up a flush draw on the turn, but the river brought no relief as his chances of winning a second bracelet were done.

Shane Rose, who started the final table as the short stack, shoved with K4 only to have Alex Martin wake up with QQ. Rose was unable to catch up as he was dispatched in eighth place.

Diana Allen was the fourth woman to make a final table at this year’s WSOP, but like Maria Ho, Kim Nguyen and Odette Tremblay, she fell short of breaking the streak of over 180 consecutive open bracelet events with a male winner. Allen moved all-in on a J 8 2 2 7 board withK J. Somerville took his time to make a decision before eventually calling and turning over K K. That hand was more than enough to take the pot and send Allen off to collect her seventh place winnings.

Gian Carlos Oliveri attempted to double through Somerville, but failed, exiting the final table in sixth place.

Alex Martin started the final table as the chip leader, hoping for a fourth British bracelet at this year’s WSOP. However, not much went well at the final table, his final hand of A-J running into Somerville’s pocket queens. Martin flopped an open-ended straight draw, but the turn and river bricked out to leave his supporters disappointed as he finished in fifth place.

The key hand at the final table was when Darian and Somerville, the two chip leaders, butted heads in the biggest pot of the tournament. After a raise by Richard Fridvalszki, Darian three-bet to 500,000 as Somerville moved all-in for 2,500,000. Fridvalszki got out of the way as Darian called. Somerville had pocket nines while Darian held A K. The flop came J-J-J, the turn Q and river 5 gave Somerville the double-up to take the lead for the first time at the final table.

It was a battle between Fridvalszki and Travis Atkins for who would take fourth place. It would be the Hungarian Fridvalszki who was knocked out when his K-10 ran into Somerville’s A-K to extend Somerville’s lead.

Atkins was happy to move up in the payouts as he moved in with K-7 as Somerville and Darian called to make it a three-way pot. His hand was no good against Somerville’s K-10, and it was down to heads-up with Somerville holding a slight chip lead over Darian.

Both players had deep stacks, but the heads-up match lasted just one hand. Darian decided to make a move with K-4 but Somerville woke up with pocket aces. The flop was K-Q-7, but the turn and river didn’t change the situation, giving Somerville the victory.

Final Table Payouts

1. Jason Somerville – $493,091
2. Yashar Darian – $305,009
3. Travis Atkins – $215,855
4. Richard Fridvalszki – $156,248
5. Alex Martin – $114,414
6. Gian Carlos Oliveri – $84,753
7. Diana Allen – $63,493
8. Shane Rose – $48,091
9. James Schaaf – $36,833

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