Andrew Cohen wins Casino Employee Event

Andrew Cohen achieved a career long dream last night when he took down the first event of the 2009 World Series of Poker, the casino employee event. In his post match interview he was asked what’s more important the money or the bracelet, he answered that question three times when he said “the bracelet, bracelet, bracelet” explaining how this has been his ultimate goal since he first took up poker years ago.

Cohen is a 39 year old bar tender formerly from NY. He works at The Palms Casino, inside the Nine steakhouse. He is married and has a six month year old daughter. Coming into this even he had 8 cashes in covered tournaments with the earliest coming October 21, 2004 and his largest coming on April 25, 2007 when he cashed for $15,190 in Event #3 of the Caesars Palace circuit event. Obviously nothing as big as winning the opening event of the 40th annual World Series of Poker where he took down $83,8333 and the coveted gold bracelet.

Those following the event might have thought it was smooth sailing the entire way based on how dominate his performance was at the final table. However, early on Andrew Cohen was down to just 1,200 chips, but managed to keep his composure and battle his way to the final table.

After a rocky start to the final table that saw a few of Cohen’s continuation bets called, he was down to middle of the pack when a key hand (still early in final table play) turned it all around. On this hand there was a preflop raising war which lead to Cohen being all in with his tournament life on the line. He was in good shape though as his kings were well ahead of John McAvoy’s pocket tens. The board ran nine high and Cohen was once again at the summit with 925,000 chips and McAvoy was down to 190,000.

McAvoy busted shortly later whan he raised all in with A7o and was called by Jun Dulay’s pocket queens. He picked up $10,545 for his seventh place finish. Shortly later Bobby Rooney followed him to the rail picking up $13,125 for his 6th place finish after he pushed his short stack in from the small blind with 56 and Dulay called with K8 which made him a straight on a board of AQ7JT.

With five players to go play got noticeably slow. There were comments from the rail asking if these guys realized this was no limit holdem. There were very few initial raises, or continuation bets and lots of hands checked down to the river.

The action finally picked up when Cohen with As8s doubled his opponent Paul Peterson up who had Qc Qs. It was a good flop for both players as it fell 3h, 6s, Ts and both players got all in, but a turned set of queens and a ten on the river gave Peterson a full house as he took 200K chips off Cohen.

Shortly later Dulay hit the rail in 5th place (collecting $17,127) when he unsuccessfully ran pocket 8’s against Casey Kuhn’s pocket jacks. Next to the rail was Grant Yasui who collected $23,483 for his two day effort after he moved all in with Ad 9c and was called by Cohen’s pocket fives.

Casey Kuhn got unlucky as he got his chips in with K4 on a flop of 3d, Ks, 5c against Cohen’s 2s 5s. The turn was a 5h giving Cohen the lead which held up to the river. Kunn collected $33,923 for his third place finish.

The heads up play was now set and it was two former New Yorkers now Las Vegas bartenders dueling it for the WSOP bracelet. As we already mentioned Andrew Cohen is a bar tender at The Palms, his opponent Paul Peterson holds a similar position as a bartender at Mandalay Bay. In the heads up match Peterson had less chips and used them very aggressively. Each time Cohen would raise a pot, Peterson would often push all in.

Cohen opted for a safe strategy and started to keep the pots small till he had big hands. However, the final hand ended in a coin flip when Cohen got his chips in with pocket sixes against Peterson’s AQ.

2009 WSOP Event 1 – Final Table Results

1st Andrew Cohen – $83,778
2nd Paul Peterson – $51,787
3rd Casey Kuhn – $33,923
4th Grant Yasui – $23,483
5th Jun Dulay – $17,127
6th Bobby Rooney – $13,125
7th John McAvoy – $10,545
8th Ferdinand Boleski – $8,866
9th Sammy Porter – $7,782

Also shared in his post match interview were Cohen’s plans for the rest of the series. He had $5,000 allocated to the WSOP this year and planned to play this event and three $1,500 events. With his win he is now hoping to get in a couple extra events and perhaps even the Main Event.

Poker-Prop.net congradulates Cohen on his first career bracelet and wishes him the best of luck through out the rest of the series and beyond.

Editor’s Note: If you’d like a chance to compete in a 2009 World Series Event, the best place to qualify online is at PokerStars.com