How Many WSOP Bracelets Will British Poker Players Win In 2010?

Richard Ashby and his fellow British poker players are lighting up the WSOP in 2010. (Photo: Rob Gracie)

Last night Steve Jellinek took down the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-Lo event at the World Series of Poker, defeating a final table lineup that included Phil Hellmuth and outlasting John Gottlieb in the heads-up match to grab $245,871 and his first career gold bracelet. With Jellinek’s win, the United Kingdom now has a total of five bracelets at this year’s WSOP, the most of any nation outside of the United States. In chronological order, the other four British bracelet winners are Praz Bansi, James Dempsey, Richard Ashby and Mike Ellis. 

How many more bracelets could British poker players win before the end of the 2010 WSOP? There’s at least one strong possibility at the moment, with Richard Ashby still holding a sizable stack with 17 players remaining in the $10,000 HORSE tournament. But putting aside for the moment the possibility of Ashby or one of the others who have already won a bracelet repeating that feat, there are a number of players who have it in them to win a WSOP event. 

“Sensei” Neil Channing has managed four cashes, including a second-place finish in Event #6, the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em Shootout. Former pro soccer player Sam Trickett also has four cashes with a runner-up spot in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold’em event. Veteran Chris Bjorin, who calls London home, has cashed five times this WSOP, including a final-table finish in the $2,500 Razz event. And of course, there are the dozens of other British pros entering events at the WSOP, any one of whom could make a run at a bracelet.

Looking down the road at the rest of the WSOP schedule, there are eight more no-limit hold’em preliminary events, one more limit hold’em event, three more pot-limit Omaha events, and the Main Event remaining here in Vegas, and then the five-event schedule at WSOP Europe in September. NLHE and PLO have been some of the strengths of British poker players at the WSOP both this year and in the past, so they have to be given a solid chance of winning at least one more bracelet before the WSOP concludes for 2010. If it doesn’t happen, no one will be surprised – but if it does, it will be one more piece of evidence for the argument that the UK is one of the world’s most consistent producers of top-level poker players.