2011 WSOP Event 9

Tuesday, June 7 2011 : Matt Perrins takes on the veterans and wins
 
The young Brit player Matt Perrins barely knew how to play No Limit 2-7 Lowball when he flew into Las Vegas this week, yet on the sixth day of the World Series of Poker he was able to take down Event 9, the $1,500 buy-in No-Limit 2-7 Lowball competition, against an entry field of 275 that included veterans like second placed Chris Bjorin, a two-bracelet WSOP winner.
 
Perrins did this by watching Lowball action on Youtube and playing a number of hands before the event, using his considerable live and online tournament experience to develop an aggressive and, as it turned out, effective strategy for the game.
 
“To be honest, Day 1 the first three or four hours, I didn’t really know what was going on here,” Perrins confessed after winning the bracelet and $102 105. “I kept speaking to mates what to do here, what to do here. As the tournament got deeper, it was kind of similar to Hold’em where opening a lot of pot and three-betting wins you a lot of pots.”
 
Perrins, who has made over $500 000 in online tournaments, mainly at Full Tilt, is no stranger to six-figure live tournament wins either. In the IPT Venezia he won $211 808, and in the EPT Grand Final he picked up $133 127, his top earnings among an impressively growing number of cashes in international competitions.
 
Day 3 of the Lowball event started with 73 surivors and ended in a final table Monday night with Perrins leading in chip counts. The young Brit managed largely to retain his domination throughout the remainder of the event, which ended when he beat Bjorin in a heads up that lasted just over an hour.
 
Commentators noted that with players like Bernard Lee, Chris Bjorin, Thomas Fuller, Josh Brikis, Robin Rightmire, and Jason Mercier, the final table was one of the strongest so far in this Series.