/ Matthew Pitt / 21 June 2011 / Leave a Comment 
Sam Stein with his bracelet and winning hand (Photo credit: PokerNews / WSOP.com)
Sam Stein's first recorded live tournament cash was for just $4,267 when he came 14th from 255 entrants in a $1,500 buy-in event at the 2009 LA Poker Classic. Little did the poker community know that this relatively small win would spark a string of results that even the very best in the game would be envious of.
You would be forgiven for having never heard of Stein but I assure you that you will be hearing much more about the talented 23-year old professional poker player. Just days after his first major live cash, Stein came second in a $1,000 tournament for $44,232 and a few months later he made the final table of the WPT Bellagio Cup V for an even larger score of $61,980. The following month he made another WPT final table, this won at the Legends of Poker, which saw him walk away with a $116,225 addition to his bankroll.
The rest of the year was cashless for Stein but he more than made up with it during 2010 with an amazing run of results. He started off the year by coming second in a $5,000 event at the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for a then career best score of $168,390 and then the month afterwards finished as runner-up to Tom Marchese in the NAPT Deep Stack Extravaganza for an even larger cash of $522,306. He spent the rest of 2010 cashing a further 10 times, eight of those being for at least five figures, and he ended with winnings for the year totalling more than $900,000.
However, the best was yet to come as Stein once again started the year in stunning form and again at the PCA. This time he finished fourth in the Main Event for a wallet-bursting $1,000,000 prize and just last week he came third in the $10,000 Pot-Limit Hold'em Championship for $264,651. Now he has gone one better and won his first major title and a World Series of Poker bracelet by taking down the hotly contested $3,000 Pot-Limit Omaha tournament.
A total of 685 players entered this year's event and these were whittled down to just 25 by the time the third day of play began, lead by Stein. It took four hours for these 25 to be reduced to the final table of nine, with Tex Barch being the final table bubble boy when his Ad-As-Td-7s lost to Christian Harder's Ac-Ah-8h-7h when the board ran out 2d-7c-Kc-3h-8s. And what a final table it was with the likes of double WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker, Adam Junglen, Harder and high stakes cash game pro Ben Lamb all vying for the $420,802 first place prize and of course an elusive bracelet.
First to be sent to the rail was Diluan Kovachecv ($31,360) and he was followed onto the sidelines by Austin Scott ($40,748) in eighth place. Parker's dreams of becoming a triple bracelet winner ended when he was eliminated in seventh whilst Zimnan Ziyard finally lost his stack to finish in sixth spot, worth $71,548. Junglen was next to go, the youngster finishing in fifth place for the second time in a matter of days, mirroring his result in the $5,000 No Limit Hold'em Shootout and when Warren Fund busted out in third there were only Stein and PLO expert Lamb to fight it out for the bracelet.
Stein held a substantial 4,245,000 to 1,920,000 chip lead over Lamb though it took him a couple of dozen hands to finally lead him to slaughter. In the final hand Stein opened with a raise to 120,000 and Lamb called, so both players saw the dealer put out the 3d-Kh-Jc flop. Lamb lead out with a 150,000 bet and Stein quickly called. The turn was the Tc and again Lamb bet out, this time for 255,000, sending Stein into the tank for over two minutes. When he eventually emerged he did so with a pot-size raise, which seemed to completely flummox Lamb who took a few moments before putting the rest of his 900,000 stack across the betting line and Stein called. Lamb turned over Qc-Js-9d-4h for the second nut-straight but Stein held Ac-Qh-Jh-6h for the nuts. The river had to be an ace and only an ace to split the pot and keep Lamb alive but it was the 2d and he was eliminated in second place, leaving Stein to pick up his first piece of poker jewellery and take his lifetime winnings past the $2,800,000 mark.
Final table payouts
1st: Sam Stein: $420,802
2nd: Ben Lamb: $259,918
3rd: Warren Fund: $184,368
4th: Christian Harder: $132,623
5th: Adam Junglen: $96,737
6th: Zimnan Ziyard: $71,548
7th: Brock Parker: $53,633
8th: Austin Scott: $40,748
9th: Dilyan Kovachev: $31,360
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