Ville Wahlbeck Nearly Wins His Second Bracelet

To say that Ville Wahlbeck has had a strong start to the 2009 World Series of Poker would be the understatement of the year.

Wahlbeck is off to an incredible start this year, having already made three WSOP final tables in just a few weeks.

Wahlbeck has cashed in four tournaments so far this year, which moves him into a tie for the lead with Daniel Negreanu, Brock Parker and David Baker.

The four cashes (so far) for Wahlbeck are made even more impressive by the fact that they have all come in 10k Championship events.

Ville got his 2009 World Series of Poker off to a strong start when he made the final table of the 10k Seven Card Stud World Championship. Wahlbeck eventually ended up coming in third place in this event.

Wahlbeck wasted no time in getting to his next final table. Just a few short days later, Wahlbeck found himself at the final table of the 10k Mixed Event Championship. He was able to battle his way through a tough final table and take down his very first World Series of Poker bracelet.

Ville wasn't done there.

Just a few short days after winning his first World Series of Poker bracelet, Wahlbeck went deep in the 10k Omaha Hi/Lo 8/b event. Wahlbeck just missed making the final table of this event, eventually settling for a 13th place finish.

Fast forward a couple of days, and Wahlbeck was once again sitting at the final table of a 10k Championship event.

Wahlbeck seemed poised and destined to capture his second World Series of Poker bracelet earlier tonight in the 10k No Limit Deuce to Seven Draw Championship, which would have made him the second multiple bracelet winner of this year's WSOP.

Unfortunately for Wahlbeck, Nick Schulman had some other plans. Schulman was able to topple Wahlbeck in heads-up play, earning himself his very first World Series of Poker bracelet in the process. Schulman now has a World Series of Poker bracelet to go with his two World Poker Tour titles.

Still though, this has been an unbelievable run for Ville Wahlbeck. With his second place finish, Wahlbeck moves to the top of the WSOP POY leaderboard, leap-frogging past Brock Parker.

With his four cashes and three final table appearances, Wahlbeck has been able to amass just over $850k in total cashes in just less than two weeks. Not a bad start at all for Wahlbeck, but he'll definitely have some work to do to stay out in front of the pack in the POY race.

Filed Under: World Series of Poker

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