Action began with a raise to 60,000 from the hijack. Alekx Dimitrov moved all in for 450,000 from the cutoff before Stephen Song called all in for 415,000 from the small blind. The initial raiser folded, and players were headed to a board with nearly 1,000,000 in the middle.
Stephen Song: A♠Q♥
Aleks Dimitrov: J♥J♠
The dealer put out 7♣8♦10♦9♣8♠ and Dimitrov drilled his straight on the turn, eliminating Song.
Under the gun open-jammed his 155,000-chip stack into the middle. Stephen Song re-raised all in for 250,000 from the hijack and the rest of the table folded.
Under The Gun: J♣J♠
Stephen Song: Q♠J♦
The board ran down 2♣10♥2♦K♠9♦ and Song made his straight to stack his opponent and chip up.
The hijack shoved for 190,000, then both Aaron Johnson in the small blind and John Racener in the big blind moved all in.
Hijack: 9♥9♣
John Racener: 9♦9♠
Aaron Johnson: 10♦10♥
On a board of 8♣A♥J♠10♣3♠, Johnson hit a set to scoop this 1,190,000 chip-pot. The hijack was eliminated, as well as Racener who was slightly covered by Johnson.
Action folded around to Alan Sternberg who open-jammed his 103,000-chip stack into the middle. Noel Rodriguez made the call in the big blind, covering Sternberg.
Alan Sternberg: 10♦9♦
Noel Rodriguez: 3♥3♠
The board came down 6♣10♥K♣8♠4♥ earning Sternberg the pot and newfound chips in the tournament.
Action picked up with Scott Seiver all in from the button and Tauan Naves re-raising all in from under the gun. Once the field was cleared the two were heads up.
Scott Seiver: 6♠6♥
Tauan Naves: A♠J♣
The flop came out 10♣5♣3♠ but the J♠ on the turn saw Seiver stand up and the 5♥ river was no help and unfortunately he won't be adding this bracelet to his collection.
Earlier this year on an ordinary Monday afternoon, a bespectacled man walked into the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop on Las Vegas Blvd. Tucked under his arm was an uninteresting box that only he knew contained something rather interesting – a pair of gold watches dating back more than 40 years.
These were not your run-of-the-mill wristwear, but rather evidence of a unique and often overlooked time of poker history, a year when the World Series of Poker (WSOP) gold bracelet, now the game’s highest accolade, was replaced in favor of watches.
1982 WSOP watches
The man holding the box was David Sklansky, who in 1978 forever changed poker by advocating a mathematical approach to the game in his groundbreaking book The Theory of Poker. Nicknamed “The Mathematician,” he proved his prowess just four years later when he won two WSOP tournaments in five days.
First, he won the 1982 WSOP Event #7: $800 Mixed Doubles Limit Seven Card Stud, a tournament that paired one man with one woman, alongside Dani Kelly, and followed that up by taking down Event #12: $1,000 Limit 5-Card Draw High. A year later, the Binions reverted back to the beloved bracelets players know today, and Sklansky captured his third piece of WSOP hardware by winning Event #11: $1,000 Limit Omaha.
It was a remarkable accomplishment, and for more than four decades he’s kept safe the evidence of his victories, both of which still worked. So, why was Sklansky carrying his 1982 WSOP gold watches, two of only 15 ever awarded, into a pawn shop? Well, he was looking to sell them of course, but not to just any of the dozens of pawn shops spread across Las Vegas. Oh no, he was walking into arguably the most famous pawn shop in the world, the home to the wildly popular television show Pawn Stars, and he was there to do it with cameras rolling.
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