It’s been a long road for Andy Bloch, the former member of the MIT card-counting ring turned poker pro. Bloch has spent the better part of the last 25 years chasing a World Series of poker bracelet and he finally managed to track-down the elusive trophy on Saturday night when he won the $1,500 Stud 8 tournament at the 2012 WSOP.

Bloch had to deal with a very tough final table that included bracelet winner, 2004 WSOP Main Event runner-up, and WPT Champion David Williams, as well as the man Andy would have to battle in heads-up play, poker legend Barry Greenstein –one of the few people with more poker experience than Bloch.

Fortunately for Bloch he entered the heads-up battle with Greenstein holding a commanding lead, and just ground down Greenstein with solid play and a little bit of run-good, which was evident after he outdrew Greenstein’s fifth-street straight on the final hand of the match.

Bloch not only avenged two runner-up WSOP finishes and picked-up his first WSOP bracelet (in his 11th final table at the WSOP) in doing so he also denied Barry Greenstein his fourth WSOP bracelet, which would have put him into a tie for 21st place on the all-time list, alongside such names as Daniel Negreanu, Huck Seed, and the late Amarillo Slim.

Here is a look at the final table payouts from the tournament:

1. Andy Bloch — $126,363

2. Barry Greenstein — $78,038

3. Stephen Su — $50,332

4. David Williams — $36,470

5. Huu Vinh — $26,813

6. Lee Goldman — $20,001

7. Caroline Hermesh — $15,135

8. Scott Abrams — $11,618

Even though this was a career highlight for Andy Bloch, it would be disgraceful of me if I didn’t mention Bloch’s role with Full Tilt Poker, as he was a founding member of Team Full Tilt and believed to be one of the original investors in the company. While the former Team Full Tilt members that are playing at the WSOP are not getting bombarded by angry players (a la John Juanda early on at the 2011 WSOP) it’s safe to say that Bloch’s first bracelet win was a bit of a bittersweet moment for all involved.

With Bloch crossing his name off of the infamous “Best player to never win a bracelet” list, which is growing smaller every year. Here is a look at some of the players still on the list that will try to follow in Bloch’s footsteps:

* Phil Gordon

* Patrik Antonius

* Billy Gazes

* Marcel Luske

* Jonathan Little

* Chad Brown

* Nam Le

* Tony G

Tags: Amarillo Slim, Andy Bloch, Barry Greenstein, Commanding Lead, Daniel Negreanu, Former Team, Founding Member, Full tilt Poker, Huck Seed, Huu Vinh, Lee Goldman, main event, Man Andy, Notches, Poker Experience, Poker Pro, Scott Abrams, World Series of Poker, WPT, WSOP

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 3rd, 2012 at 6:28 am and is filed under Poker News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.