Christopher Vitch from Arizona managed to survive the heads-up battle against his opponent Benny Glaser to win the cash prize of $320,103 and second WSOP-branded gold bracelet in in the 2017 World Series of Poker’s Event #48, Seven Card Stud Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship.
Vitch managed to defeat a field of 125 experienced players, who were competing for the biggest share of the guaranteed prize pool worth $1,175,000. In fact, this the second consecutive year with a big WSOP win for the Arizona’s player, who managed to appear victorious in the 2016 WSOP’s Event #40, $2,500 Mixed Lowball Triple Draw. Nevertheless, this year appears to be even luckier for Vitch, amassing $320,103, which is reported to be his biggest WSOP cash prize.
With over $913,164 poker earnings in total and two gold bracelets, Vitch shared that he prefers the limit and mixed variations of the game. Thus, being experienced enough, it is not a surprise that the 34-years-old Vitch was playing with confidence. Furthermore, he has appeared 6 times before on WSOP final tables, which also helped the player to gain the upper hand over his opponents.
His heads-up opponent, Benny Glaser, is also a heavyweight on the poker field, having in his bank account more than a million only from poker earnings. The second place in $10,000 Seven-Card-Stud Hi-Lo Championship paid him $197,838, but he could not manage to add the gold bracelet to his 3 others, won in other WSOP championships.
The other player, who managed to appear in the list of the top-three was the well-known Abe Mosseri, raking $138,608, but he also missed the chance to add a third bracelet to his collection.
The heads-up battle was a long duel between the two players, lasting for four hours. Following the course of the heads-up battle, Glaser managed to melt the significant difference of 15:1 chip lead of Vitch and even take the dominant position for a while in the heads-up battle. The final hand in play saw Vitch holding [9h][7c][Jd][5h] against Glaser’s [2s][2h][6d][10d].
Eventually, [Ac][3s][Jh] appeared on the table. This gave the eventual runner-up a pair of deuces and a hope to grab the gold, but the next turn run [6c][6s][2d] on the table to pair Vitch’s six and secure him the pot.
In an interview after his victory, Vitch said that it was a hard and strained heads-up battle, due to the strong play of his runner-up. He admitted that Glaser played brilliantly, without giving up even for a moment. The two-handed match continued for 4 hours of an intense and exhaustive game, full of interesting hands and unexpected turns.
