Mark Schmid joined the growing list of players winning their first WSOP bracelet at the 2011 WSOP.

Over the course of the last three days Mark Schmid battled through a field of 3,144 players to win the third $1,000 No Limit Texas Hold’em event at the 2011 World Series of Poker. Schmid defeated Justin Cohen heads-up to win the bracelet and $488,283.

“It’s huge for me. This is one of my life goals. I remember on my blog last year I posted my goal was to win a bracelet,” said Schmid, 31. “I cashed three times out of eight tournaments but I didn’t even make a final table. To come through with the win was huge.”

The bracelet is the first for Schmid and he is the 33rd player to earn their first WSOP bracelet this summer.

“There’s so much variance in tournaments that you can’t really expect to win a bracelet,” said Schmid. “There’s good players that could go a decade without winning a bracelet just because it’s so high in variance.”

The day started with three nine-handed tables in action and played down to a final nine players in a little more than six hours. Just ten minutes after the official final table began the first player was already on the rail. Jeremy Kottler moved all-in from the button with A 2 and was called by Jonathan Clancy in the big blind with A J. Clancy caught a jack on the flop and Kottler was unable to find any help on the last two cards and the 31-year-old was out in ninth for $36,473.

Michael Souza started the final day with the chip lead but had been nursing a short stack for a better part of the early evening. His run ended with an eighth place finish after he moved all-in with pocket threes and was called by the K Q of Schmid. The flop was safe for Souza but the Q on the turn followed by another blank on the river sealed Souza’s fate.

The lone European representative was eliminated when Robbie Verspui picked the wrong time to make a move. Rudnik opened with a raise to 125,000 from under the gun. The other players got out of the way and Verspui moved all-in. Rudnik called right away and flipped over pocket aces while Verspui showed A J. The flop included the J but that’s as close as Verspui got. The Dutch poker pro collected $62,873 for his seventh place finish.

The next elimination looked a lot like the previous one. From under the gun Benjamin Volpe moved all-in, action folded to Clancy in the small blind who responded by moving all-in. The big blind folded and Volpe showed Q J and Clancy turned over pocket aces. Once again the flop included a jack but nothing else on the turn or river put Volpe out in sixth place with a $83,925 cash.

With five players left Cohen and Vanderveen tangled in another all-in preflop hand. Cohen opened the betting with a raise to 160,000, Schmid called before Vanderveen moved all-in for exactly 1,000,000. Cohen called, Schmid folded and Cohen showed pocket queens while Vanderveen showed A J. The flop, turn and river ran without an ace and Vanderveen was eliminated in fifth place. The Bellingham, WA native pocketed $113,297.

That elimination put Cohen into the chiplead ahead of Schmid and he increased that lead when he eliminated Clancy in fourth place. Clancy moved all-in and Cohen called. Clancy was ahead with pocket jacks with Cohen holding K Q. The flop was blank for Cohen but the K on the turn put him ahead with only one card left. The 3 river gave Cohen the pot and his second consecutive elimination. Clancy collected $154,722.

The Aussie continued his hot streak and just 30 minutes later he sent another player home early. Another all-in preflop race pitted Cohen’s A K against the pocket jacks of Andrew Rudnik. The A K T gave Cohen top-two pair but also gave Rudnik a chance to make Broadway or a set of jacks. Both the turn and the river were baby cards and Rudnik was out in third place for $213,747.

Not suprisingly, with three straight eliminations to his credit, Cohen held a convincing chip lead over Schmid. Cohen started with 7,000,000 of the 9,430,000 chips in play. The chips evened up though just five minutes into heads-up play. All the money went in on a K 8 6 J board with Cohen holding J 8 for two pair and Schmid with K 9 for top pair. The 9 on the river gave Schmid a better two pair and brought the two players to almost dead even chips.

Cohen would regain the 3-1 advantage one more time before Schmid found a way to even things out. That was as close as Cohen would get to the bracelet. On the final hand of the night Schmid called from the small blind and Cohen checked. The flop came K T 7 and both players checked. The turn was the 7 and Cohen check-called Schmid 250,000 bet. The river was the A. Cohen checked, Schmid bet 450,000 and Cohen responded by moving all-in. Schmid called and tabled Q Q for the nut flush while Cohen turned over trip sevens with a jack kicker. Cohen walked away with $302,031 for his runner-up performance.

“I really wanted to try and play post flop with him because I felt like I had more of an edge versus getting it all in pre-flop,” said Schmid about his strategy against Cohen, an amateur.

Final Table Payouts

1. Mark Schmid – $488,283
2. Justin Cohen – $302,031
3. Andrew Rudnik – $213,747
4. Jonathan Clancy – $154,722
5. Trevor Vanderveen – $113,297
6. Benjamin Volpe – $83,925
7. Robbie Verspui – $62,873
8. Michael Souza – $47,622
9. Jeremy Kottler – $36,473

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