Yorky Pud

Usually the $1,500 No-Limit Deuce-to-Seven Lowball would only stir up the interests of the most die-hard of poker fans but not this time around as a crowd of around 40 supporters chanted, cheered and heckled throughout the final table. These railbirds were there for one reason and one reason only, to see Matt Perrins bring home the bacon for the Brits.

Up until Saturday Perrins had never played a single hand of Deuce-to Seven Lowball but thought it would be a good idea to pay $1,500 and take part in a World Series of Poker event, as you do. He studied around half an hour of YouTube footage before declaring himself ready to take on the world. Now he is a WSOP bracelet winner in this event after besting a talented field of 274 fellow players.

Perrins may not be a household name as yet but he is highly rated amongst the British poker players. Known as “pez102” in online circles, where he usually plays $3/$6 heads up cash games and has won almost $580,000 in tournaments, Perrins often travels to events with the likes of Toby Lewis, Chris Moorman and his best friend Jake Cody. Although primarily an online player, Perrins has some remarkable results in the live tournament arena, having one close to $600,000 from them, including an outright victory in the €2,000 IPT Venezia Main Event in 2009, which is still his largest cash to date.

As mentioned, 275 players took part in this event, creating a prizepool of $371,250. This was shared out amongst the top 28 players, which included the likes of Tom Franklin, Eli Elezra, British pro Stuart Rutter and Greg Mueller. The final table was also a star-studded affair, being the home to the likes of Jason Mercier, Josh Brikis, Bernard Lee and Perrins' heads-up opponent, Chris Bjorin.

Bjorin is one of the most under-rated players to have ever played the game. A Swedish national who now resides in London, Bjorin has two WSOP bracelets to his name and over $5,000,000 in live tournament winnings, helped by 59 cashes in WSOP events, ranking him joint fifth with Humberto Brenes and Berry Johnston. Although Bjorin only trailed Perrins by a narrow margin at the start of heads up he soon found himself down by a staggering 11-to-1!

The final hand took place during Level 21 with blinds of 6,000/12,000/3,000a and saw Perrins open-shove from the button for 1,150,000 chips. Bjorin made the call and turned over Tx7x6x3x which was trailing the 8x6x5x3x (the aim of the game is to make the lowest hand possible with 7x5x4x3x2x being the nuts). Bjoring asked Perrins, “Can you draw first so I know what I need to beat? I could be drawing dead.” Perrins obliged and drew a 2x, which locked up the hand and meant Bjorin was indeed drawing dead. He drew a meaningless 10x and with that the 40-strong rail of Perrins' British supports erutped and flocked to congratulate their hero.

Perrins said in an interview that he may play in the $10,000 Deuce-to Seven Lowball Championship later in the series he enjoyed this tournament that much. Perrins' success proves there is always room in a player's repertoire t learn new poker variants.

Final table payouts

1st: Matt Perrins: $102,105
2nd: Chris Bjorin: $63,112
3rd: Robin Rightmare: $41,643
4th: Bernard Lee: $28,422
5th: Thomas Fuller: $19,906
6th: John Brikis: $14,296
7th: Jason Mercier: $10,524