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The latest World Series of Poker results have Jan-Peter Jactmann winning a bracelet and $661,000 at Event #39: Pot Limit Hold’em while Ronnie Bardah won a bracelet and $188,022 in Event #40: Limit Hold’em Six-Handed.
Germany’s Jachtmann has just over $1 million in live winnings following this weekend’s victory. This is his first bracelet, 3rd tournament win and 29th cash.
Bardah (AKA “RoNasty”) comes to us from the mean streets of Brockton, Massachusetts and, not to take anything away from Jachtmann, but Bardah’s story is among the most inspiring from this year’s World Series of Poker thus far.
Nolan Dalla of the WSOP tells a bit of the Bardah story:
Bardah’s story actually began long before that, in a tough and grimy working-class neighborhood of Boston, called Brockton. There was nothing in his personal background to suggest that he would ever become a professional poker player, let alone a world traveler with deep personal convictions and a deep compassion for his fellow human beings.
Bardah’s story actually began long before that, in a tough and grimy working-class neighborhood of Boston, called Brockton. There was nothing in his personal background to suggest that he would ever become a professional poker player, let alone a world traveler with deep personal convictions and a deep compassion for his fellow human beings.
A drug dealer --- maybe. A gang member – perhaps. A high school dropout – check. The odds were stacked against Bardah from the start. But if anything is certain, it’s that Bardah is accustomed to beating the odds and defying expectations. He’s done it over and over again, from Day One.
Most people had never heard of Bardah until two years ago, when he went on the rolicking roll of a lifetime, outlasting more than 6,000 other poker players in the 2010 WSOP Main Event Championship. He lasted seven long days in the tournament marathon, and seemed on the verge of possibly making that year’s November Nine class. No doubt, that would have been something to remember.
But just as Bardah was about to make one final determined run for the world championship, disaster struck. It wasn’t the kind of disaster normally though of in a poker tournament. It was worse than that. Much worse.
Without any warning or provocation, Bardah inexplicably found himself the victim of a series of seizures and muscle contortions that made the prospect of playing for millions of dollars in prize money and poker immortality completely inconsequential, by comparison. His facial muscles began twitching. He couldn’t control parts of his body. He felt pain and stinging all over.
Bardah ended up playing until there were just 26 other players. At that point he headed to a Las Vegas hospital emergency room where doctors were unable to diagnose what was occurring with the aspiring poker pro.
Bardah would ultimately cash out at 24th, pocketing $317,161.
At age 27, Bardah began reading self-help books, studied spiritualism in Thailand and took up kick boxing.
Now he’s a changed man and his World Series of Poker has people talking.
Congrats to Ronnie Bardah and Jan-Peter Jactmann.
- Ace King, Gambling911.com
