July 19, 2020

Former WPT Champ Pat Lyons Wins First WSOP Bracelet and $173K

3 min read

Pat Lyons had an impressive showing during the 2019 World Series of Poker in Las Vegas last summer as he racked up eight cashes for a total of $38,441 in tournament winnings. But in Friday’s $777 No-Limit Hold’em event, Lyons blew his 2019 earnings away with a $173,552 score for his first-place finish to go along with his first WSOP bracelet.

Pat Lyons has added a WSOP Bracelet to his already impressive poker resume. (Image: Bicycle Casino)

According to his Hendon Mob profile, Lyons has more than $1.5 million in career tournament earnings. The lion’s share of those winnings came in August of 2016 when he won the $1,100 No-Limit Hold’em Main Event of the Arizona State Poker Championship for $241,700 and the $4,000 No-Limit Hold’em World Poker Tour Main Event for $615,346.

WSOP Online Event #1 winner Jonathan Dokler (Art.Vandelay) made a deep run in this one, finishing in fourth-place for $54,948. Daniel Negreanu (DNegs) picked up his sixth cash of the series finishing in 123^rd place for $1,354. Notables that finished in the top 100 include Roland Israelashvili (12^th– $10,061), Chris Moorman (33^rd – $4,160), Anthony Zinno (39^th – $3,483), Ryan Laplante (69^th – $2,128), and Jesse Sylvia (87^th – $1,741).

$777 No-Limit Hold’em Results

1. Pat Lyons (Ichiikawawa) – $173,552
2. Chris Ginley (NJ_Glive) – $107,478
3. Barry Wenger (_MLB_) – $76,328
4. Jonathan Dokler (Art.Vandelay) – $54,948
5. Jim Collopy (Bocaratone) – $40,147
6. Vincent Pontrello (veepoh) – $29,602
7. Scott Hempel (BudLightLime) – $22,250
8. Julian Parmann (Julian) – $16,833
9. Dave Alfa (DunningKrugr) – $12,963

High Rake Continues to Stir Debate Among Poker Players

Friday’s $777 No-Limit Hold’em Event #17 brought in 917 unique players and 465 rebuys for a healthy $967,400 prize pool. But the rake that WSOP.com collected was quite healthy as well, with a whopping $77 out of each $777 entry (9.9%) taken as rake. WSOP.com made $106,414 on the event, which ran for 11 hours and 11 minutes.

Played a 950+50 wsop the other day. Today’s bracelet event is 700+77. Very poor form by @wsop for this offering

— Ari Engel (@AriEngelPoker) July 17, 2020

Ari Engel (PhilIvey) was one of many poker pros who took to Twitter to complain about this rake structure. For comparison’s sake, this Saturday’s WSOP Bracelet Event #18 is a $1,000 entry event in which $950 of each buy-in will go into the prize pool, and only $50 (5%) will be collected as rake.

While the $77 rake in the $777 event may look egregious at first glance, especially when compared to the $50 rake in the $1,000 events, it is actually consistent with the WSOP.com’s rake structure throughout the series. Here’s a look at the rake collected at each buy-in level during the WSOP Online Series:

WSOP Buy-Ins and Rake

$400 Buy-In / $360 + $40 / 10% Rake
$500 Buy-In / $450 + $50 / 10% Rake
$600 Buy-In / $540 + $60 / 10% Rake
$777 Buy-In / $700 + $77 / 9.9% Rake
$1,000 Buy-In / $950 + $50 / 5% Rake
$2,000 Buy-In / $1900 + $100 / 5% Rake
$3,200 Buy-In / $3040 + $160 / 5% Rake

It’s interesting to see such a significant drop-off in rake from the buy-ins below $1,000 to the ones at $1,000 and above. Despite the rake complaints and online action being limited to players physically located in Nevada and New Jersey, the WSOP Online bracelet events have consistently drawn large fields as players chase big paydays and a WSOP bracelet.