Which WSOP bracelet win has been the most impressive so far this year?
We have passed the halfway stage and ahead of the $50,000 Players Championship, Barry Carter picks out some of the biggest victories from the 2014 WSOP.
Notable firsts
We might remember this year as another Year of the Pro, as we have seen a lot of big names take down gold by the halfway stage. There has also been a lot of very accomplished players finally adding their name to the list of bracelet winners after being touted as long deserving of one.
Former Global Poker Index leader Paul Volpe took down his first bracelet this year, and in doing so potentially stopped Vegas from going bust, as he denied Daniel Negreanu and his lucrative 2014 WSOP bracelet bet the title heads-up.
Doug Polk may not be known for his tournament acumen, but as currently one of the best online cash game players in the world, it was no surprise that he joined the bracelet club this year.
Justin Bonomo was arguably the best tournament player without a bracelet on the list, and finally got over the finish line after so many near misses throughout his career.
And without doubt the most popular winner of the bunch was George Danzer, who not only is one of the true Gents of poker, he is also very well known for craving WSOP gold more than just about any other player in the world.
(Update: Literally at the time of release George was on the verge of winning his second bracelet of the series)
Repeat winners
It is remarkable how many people have won their second or third bracelet this year. It makes sense that this would happen, there have been so many bracelet events in the last decade that invariably there are more bracelet winners in every field - it is inevitable we will get repeat winners.
I am going to mention some specific ones in more detail, but at the time of writing Eric Buchmann, Brian Yoon, John Kabbaj and Brett Shaffer all won their second strap. Even more notable, Brock Parker and Dutch Boyd won their third bracelet this year.
However, we also had some repeat winners who also made headlines with the nature of their wins:
The funniest
Phil Hellmuth is having a strong series so far, with several near misses. His long-time friend Ted Forrest denied him his 14th when he himself won his 6th in the Seven Card Razz event.
However, in one of the funnier moments from the WSOP this year, Davidi Kitai also stood in the Poker Brat's way. Hellmuth had no clue who Kitai was in the $3,000 Six Handed No Limit event and announced:
"Crazy Frenchman is going to cost me my 14th bracelet. You have no chance to win sir."
It was particularly funny, first of all because Kitai is from Belgium, but also because Hellmuth clearly had not done his homework on his opponent. Prior to this event Kitai had already won the Triple Crown, and when he finally went on to win this tournament, he took down his third WSOP bracelet.
A Triple Crown winner and a Triple Bracelet winner, time to start looking at The Hendon Mob database, Mr Hellmuth.
The post-boom curse lifted
Many of the post-boom Main Event champions have gone on to impress after their historic win, but until this week none of them had managed to bag another WSOP bracelet.
That ended when Joe Cada, someone who had kept a pretty low profile after the 2009 Main Event, took down the second most prestigious $10,000 No Limit event, the Six Handed Championship.
He joins Greg Merson in that rarest of clubs of having both the Full Ring and Six Handed No Limit Championships (Merson of course winning his Six Handed bracelet before he won the Main Event).
This accolade is meaningful, because to some extent the Main Event title is viewed in lottery terms, so the fact that our champions have success like this after the big one is a good sign of the skill side of the game.
It also sets up an interesting new target to shoot for; can Greg or Joe take down the $10,000 Heads-Up event to win the $10k WSOP No Limit Triple Crown?
The most marketable
Another impressive third bracelet came from Vanessa Selbst this year. It is always a good story when Selbst wins big because she breaks records whenever she plays.
Her third bracelet win ties her with Barbara Enwright for the female player with the most bracelets - a record one would expect her to smash in no time at all. Vanessa is already the all-time female money earner, so that record just gets extended.
However, the big reason this victory impressed was because Selbst became the first female player to cross the $10 million in career cashes mark.
Combine that with Vicky Coren's landmark double-EPT win and we have already had one of the standout years for women's poker.
Knocking Ivey off his perch
Last but not least, we have another impressive third bracelet, this time from Dominik 'aceontheriver' Nitsche.
Nitsche won the $1,000 No Limit Event, to go with his WSOP National Championship bracelet from earlier this year, and his other $1,000 No Limit bracelet from 2012.
Not only is Nitsche one of the great ambassadors for the game and very well liked, this achievement is notable because at just 23 he has become the youngest player ever to win three bracelets.
The former record holder of that accolade? A certain Mr Phil Ivey, who was 26 when he had won his third. Fine company to keep if ever there was, and the record smashed by quite a margin.
Some people will try and argue against his WSOP National Championship bracelet counting as a legitimate bracelet. My reply to that would be that just like the WSOPE and the WSOP APAC, if it is a World Series of Poker event and it ends with the awarding of a bracelet, it counts.
What do you think is the biggest bracelet win of the World Series of Poker so far? Let me know in the comments box.
 Barry Carter is the editor of PokerStrategy.com and the co-author of The Mental Game of Poker 1 & 2. He has been working in the poker industry for nine years and in 2013 won the APAT Award for Best Poker Media Provider. You can learn more about his work here.
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