James Obst wins second World Series of Poker bracelet after returning from professional tennis hiatus

James Obst started playing online poker seriously as a teenager in his home country of Australia. He fought his way to the top of the internet and began making his presence felt in the world of tournaments in early 2010. He won his first in 2017 World Series of Poker bracelet, winning the $10,000 razz championship for $265,354.

In 2018, at the age of 27, Obst announced that he would be leaving poker to pursue a career in professional tennis. He had been a serious player in his youth, but put his ambitions aside after facing a health problem as a younger player.

After a few years away from live poker, Obst returned to the WSOP in 2023 and made several deep runs, including a fourth-place finish in the $50,000 Poker Players Championship. As for his skills at the table, he hadn’t missed a beat.

Only a few weeks left in 2024 WSOP, Obst managed to emerge victorious with his second bracelet. He topped the list of 107 entries in the $10,000 seven card stud championship to secure the hardware and top prize of $260,658. He now has more than $3.5 million in recorded tournament winnings.

Obst scored 600 Card player Player of the Year points and 261 PokerGO tour points for the win.

Only the top 17 finishers earned a share of the $995,100 prize pool in this event. Big names who went deep included four-time bracelet winner Brad Ruben (17th), three-time bracelet winner Chad Eveslage (14th), and 2019 bracelet winner WSOP third place in the main event Alex Livingston (11th), two-time bracelet winner Yuval Bronshtein (10th), four-time bracelet winner Yuri Dzivielevski (8th), bracelet winner Andre Akkari (7th), two-time bracelet winner Juha Helppi (6th) and five-time bracelet winner Robert Mizrachi (5th).

Obst knockout Mizrachi won his fifth bracelet just two weeks earlier in the dealer’s choice championship. Obst jacked and sent Mizrachi to the rail with $61,190.

Mike Lang was the next to fall, encountering an ace-high flush for bracelet winner Jason Daly. Lang walked away with $83,932 in third place. It took over three hours for the next elimination to occur. Despite Lang being eliminated in fourth place, Daly was ultimately the next player to be sent home. He moved all-in on fifth straight with an ace-high flush draw against nines-up for Obst. Daly finished with just a pair of eights on Seventh Street and was eliminated in third place ($118,809).

Obst went heads-up with 3,535,000 against 2,890,000 for three-time bracelet winner Paul Volpe. he was able to extend that advantage as the night progressed. Kings for Obst in one of the last pots saw Volpe go up in smoke as the hour approached 3am.

Volpe quickly moved all-in with three to a flush against a split pair of fours for Obst. Volpe was unable to make his flush or any pair higher than four, meaning his run ended in second place ($173,391). He now has nearly $9.9 million in recorded tournament winnings across 292 in-the-money finishes.

Here is an overview of the payouts and ranking points awarded at the final table:

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Photo credits: PokerGO / Miguel Cortes.