The first time a South African poker player won a World Series of Poker bracelet, the Berlin Wall was still standing, Nirvana was about to put out its debut album "Bleach," and a 24-year-old kid named Phil Hellmuth was a week away from winning the WSOP Main Event.
South African Norman Keyser won his country's first and live WSOP bracelet in May 1989. A year later Hugh Todd one his country's second bracelet. Since then, outside of an online WSOP win, South Africa has been a bracelet desert. Today that changed, and South Africans have 21-year-old Adriaan Jacobs to thank for it. As it the winning hand played out, a stunned South African woman stood on the rail, her eyes wide.
"Has he won?' Has he won?" she asked. "He's going to bring the poker boom to South Africa."
A few feet away, Barend Jacobs stood fumbling with his phone, looking like he might cry, mumbling, "I need to call his grandparents."
Father & son birthday trip turns historic
Make no mistake. Adriaan is just barely old enough to play poker in Las Vegas. He still has braces with rubber bands and the wide-eyed joy of being in Las Vegas for the first time. He had barely started to absorb that he is one of the youngest WSOP bracelet winners in history.
"I ran so incredibly hot. It's insane. I ran hotter than I've ever run before," he said. "I won't lie. I I can't believe I actually got this far."
To even get so far in the tournament required an epic journey of its own. It took 30 hours by plane to reach Nevada from South Africa.
"He turned 21 weeks ago and I thought, let me take him to the WSOP. So, we flew halfway around the world and he's got a bracelet," his father said.
The entry fee for the WSOP Deepstack Championship was a paltry $600, but the first prize Adriaan banked totaled $282,817.
His father, still in disbelief, looked on with pride and said, "He works very hard. I expected something, but I didn't expect this."
A new South African poker hero
While two South Africans have won online WSOP titles in the past, Jacobs' bracelet is only the third live bracelet in WSOP history. Jacobs' win catapults him over the first bracelet-winner's career earnings and puts the new South African hero in the top 60 South African poker winners of all time.
Stephen Courtney (44th in South African career winnings) was on the rail and couldn't stop smiling. He said, "We've got a whole poker community back in South Africa. For the last two days we've all been messaging each other. The whole community back home is so super excited."
To be sure, it's not as if South Africa doesn't have it's legends. Prior to Jacobs' historic win today, South Africa's reigning hero was Raymond Rhame, the grandfatherly South African who shocked his country and the world by finishing third at the 2007 WSOP Main Event for $3 million. In recent years, Jarred Solomon has made several deep runs at the WSOP and has $2 million in career earnings. There are dozens of other big earners, but none so exciting as what Jacobs accomplished today.
And he's hearing about it.
"My phone is blowing up. It's like vibrating in my pocket right now," he said. "I've got so many people DMing me. Everyone's is wishing me luck and congratulations,. I'm so thankful for everyone that's been railing me."
South African Moneymaker?
Before the WSOP had even put the bracelet on his wrist, Jacobs had heard people talking about Chris Moneymaker, the unknown from Tennessee who kicked off the poker boom in 2003. His South African friends were already alluding to the possibility of a Jacobs Boom in South Africa.
Even Jacobs himself isn't prepared to dream that big yet, but he's keeping his mind open. He already has return plane tickets to go back home in a few days. But there is still one more Main Event flight after today, and his dad has ideas.
"I was supposed to go home Wednesday, and now my dad wants me to stay and play the Main and take a couple more shots before I go home," Jacobs said.
If anything, Jacobs can look at it this way: if he sticks around and misses his flight, he can still afford to fly first class on the way back to South Africa.
How else should a national hero fly home?
*Photos courtesy WSOP
