Mike Watson has been a high poker match participant for practically 20 years, with reside outcomes relationship again to 2006. The 40-year-old Canadian poker professional has cashed for over $29 million on the circuit, with main victories on a number of high excursions. The one trophy that has at all times eluded Watson, although, was a World Series of Poker bracelet. Finally, 17 years after recording his first WSOP money, Watson has lastly captured his first piece of WSOP {hardware}.
“I do think that if I’m a very successful tournament player, winning the bracelet isn’t the biggest priority. But, it’s definitely gotten to the point now where I just keep getting close and it keeps not happening, and that has gotten frustrating,” Watson advised Card Player in an interview again in 2022 when requested about shut calls in bracelet occasions.
Watson took down the 2024 WSOP Online $1,000 no-limit maintain’em six-max championship to earn $138,327 and the coveted {hardware}. This win formally made the Toronto, Ontario resident the tenth participant in historical past to realize poker’s ‘triple crown’, with victories on the WSOP alongside major occasion wins on the World Poker Tour and the European Poker Tour. A full listing of triple crown winners could be discovered on the backside of the web page.
Watson practically crossed successful a bracelet off his to-do listing in 2012. He gained a excessive curler occasion throughout that 12 months’s World Series of Poker Europe, however the occasion was listed as a non-bracelet match regardless of happening on the identical venue because the bracelet-awarding tournaments throughout the identical sequence in Cannes. Watson topped a tricky subject of 60 entries in what amounted to a $66,060 buy-in when rendered in US {dollars}.
His WPT win got here again in 2008. He topped a subject of 446 entries within the 2008 WPT Bellagio Cup IV $15,400 buy-in to earn $1,673,770. As for the EPT, he gained the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $728,325 in 2016 after which took down the 2022 EPT Monte Carlo major occasion in 2022. Those tournaments had been $5,300 and $5,651 to enter, respectively, with 928 and 1,098 entries.
Watson can also be a four-time Triton Poker occasion winner. That places him in a tie with Fedor Holz and Wai Kin Yong for third place on the tour’s titles leaderboard. Only ten-time champion Jason Koon and five-time champions Mikita Badziakouski, Phil Ivey, and Danny Tang have secured extra trophies on the tour.
Watson had loads of robust competitors down the stretch in his run to the bracelet, with the likes of bracelet winner Mitch Halverson (sixteenth), bracelet winner and two-time WPT champion Kevin Eyster (tenth), and WPT champion Matthew Salsberg (sixth) all operating deep.
Here is a have a look at the payouts awarded on the last desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings |
| 1 | Michael Watson | $138,327 |
| 2 | Michael McNeil | $101,118 |
| 3 | Michael Balan | $74,324 |
| 4 | John Gallaher | $54,630 |
| 5 | Derek Kwan | $40,428 |
| 6 | Matthew Salsberg | $30,108 |
| 7 | Scott Castelluccio | $22,629 |
| 8 | Frank Bonacci | $17,137 |
| 9 | Aidan Long | $13,066 |
Here are the ten Triple Crown winners:
Gavin Griffin
Roland De Wolfe
Jake Cody
Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier
Davidi Kitai
Mohsin Charania
Harrison Gimbel
Niall Farrell
Roberto Romanello
Mike Watson
Visit the Card Player 2024 World Series of Poker web page for schedules, information, interviews, and the newest occasion outcomes. WSOP protection sponsored by Global Poker.
