WSOP 2010 Event 20 - John "Tex" Barch Wins $1

Event #20 of the 2010 WSOP, $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha, drew a strong field of 885 players looking to take down the first bracelet of this WSOP in this action junkie's dream.

WSOP 2010 Event 19 winner John 'Tex' Barch

Pot-Limit Omaha is the most popular variant of poker in Europe and is #2 in the U.S. behind Holdem.  Day 1 saw a strong field turn out to take their shot at the $256,919 top prize.  By Day 2, the money bubble was reached.  Some of the players that made the money were Ryan Hughes, "Mr. Omaha" Robert Williamson III., Jason Potter, Jason Mercier, Matt Stout, Michael Keiner, and 7-time bracelet winner Jay Heimowitz.

The final table of this event was headlined by three pros.  Blair Rodman, John "Tex" Barch, and Nenad Medic all had their eye on the prize.  Nenad Medic started with nearly a 1 Million chip lead over the rest of the field.  Here is how the final nine started play:

Seat 1:  Trai Dang                               500,000

Seat 2: Nenad Medic                         1,504,000

Seat 3: John "Tex" Barch                   546,000

Seat 4: Ashkan Razavi                       294,000

Seat 5: Tyler Patterson                       139,000

Seat 6: Blair Rodman                         272,000

Seat 7: Chris Hyong Chang               195,000

Seat 8: Denton Pfister                        167,000

Seat 9:  Klinhammer Thibaut              366,000

Omaha can be a swingy game and Nenad Medic proved that the hard way as he finished 4th in this event.  Heads-up play at this final table was between Tex Barch and Klinghammer Thibaut.  Thibaut was short for most of this final table and heads-up was no exception.  He trailed Barch 3.57 Million to just 410,000 in chips.  Heads-up play took just one hand as Thibaut moved all-in at the turn with the board showing Jc-Ah-7s-10c.  Barch made the call and showed Js-7s-8c-2d for jacks-up.  Thibaut showed 10h-8h-7c-2s for tens-up.  The river fell the Qs and Tex Barch takes down the $1,500 PL Omaha bracelet.

Prior to this win, Barch had two other final tables.  The one he is most remembered for is his 2005 Main Event final where he finished 3rd to Joe Hachem, one of the most popular WSOP Main Event winners.  Congratulations to Tex Barch, $1,500 PL Omaha Champion.

Below are the final table payouts:

1	John Barch	256,919
2	Klinghammer Thibaut	158,698
3	Trai Dang	102,306
4	Nenad Medic	74,946
5	Ashkan Razavi	55,711
6	Chris Hyong Chang	41,971
7	Blair Rodman	32,007
8	Tyler Patterson	24,695
9	Denton Pfister	19,259