Bracelet winner Andres Korn adds WSOPC Ring to his trophy cabinet

Andres "chokitin" Korn is on his way to one of poker's most prestigious triple crowns.

The WSOP hat-trick is a WSOP bracelet, a WSOPC ring, and a WSOPE bracelet. Korn now has the first two, after taking down the $800 Deepstack No Limit Hold 'em Championship. It's time for Korn to buy a one-way ticket to Heathrow Airport. Just as soon as the UK opens up again.

Korn's bracelet was for the 2017 $5,000 No Limit Hold 'em event for which he won $618k. He has a total of $2,086,966 in live tourney cashes so far. So this win marks another significant jump in his bankroll.

The event garnered 1,545 entries, which Korn dispatched in around 11 hours.

"Deepstack" doesn't mean much when the blinds are that fast. Korn had to play aggressively to stay ahead of the steep structure. Still, he kept the momentum up, and was able to push-fold his way to a $163,389 payday.

And then there were two...

Play was hectic. The bubble of 225 players broke an hour or so after late registration closed for the tourney. There was only time for a break-and-a-half before the field was down to the final nine.

Heads-up play lasted for just three hands. Blinds were at 700,000/1,400,000/175,000 with stacks at around 24 million to 40 million, and with Korn lagging behind.

Hand one made little difference to the state of affairs. Hand two changed everything.

On that second hand, both players got it in pre-flop. Korn had Ah-6h, his opponent Yannick "ProbierEs" Schumacher had Ks-Qs. The board missed both players and Korn's ace-high took the lead.

With just 13 million left behind in his stack, Schumacher moved in on the very next hand. He had T-9 off-suit. Korn got the suited K-Q this time, and once again his high-card held.

Schumacher made $122,524 for his second place finish.

To Moscow, to Moscow, quick

Korn may want to complete his triple crown while the WSOP still has some serious cachet. The series's brand is trapped in a runaway deal with GGPoker. And GGPoker seems hell-bent on wringing every dollar it can out of the WSOP in the short run. The result is enormous bracelet inflation and WSOPC Main Events that can be bought into for three figures (the current WSOPC Online main event is just $525 to enter).

There are even plans to run another WSOP Online this year (not to mention the online events at the main WSOP in Vegas). And the number of WSOPC events on the GGPoker platform seem to be on the rise.

Poker's most prestigious triple-crown is to have a WPT, EPT, and WSOP title. There may be competition for that third spot soon.

With the WPT selling to new owners backed by large media and gambling conglomerates, the WSOP's time in the sun may be coming to an end.

Korn's crushing, but he may need to get a move on.

Full final table results

Featured image source: Flickr by WPT