2011 WSOP Bracelet Winner Profile – Joe Ebanks

Joe Ebanks on Thursday won Event #36 of the 2011 WSOP, the $10K No-Limit Hold’Em Six-Max Championship. This is the first bracelet for Ebanks. He took home $1,158,481 for the win as well as the bracelet.  Ebanks came out on top of a starting field of 474 players. Ebanks had to beat some of the best No-Limit Hold’Em players in the world including Vanessa Rousso, Justin Bonomo, Scott Seiver and Isaac Haxton.

Joe Ebanks - $10,000 NL Hold'em Six-Max Championship bracelet winner.

Ebanks, 26, is a pro poker player from Stow, Ohio. Ebanks is known primarily as an online poker player though he does have substantial wins in the live tournament scene. Ebanks started grinding sit and go’s while he was a student and was successful enough that he dropped out of Kent State.

Ebanks, who played online as ender555, made a name for himself in 2008 by winning several huge online tournaments. In one month alone he final tabled the Full Tilt $750k GTD, won the stars $100 re-buy, and took down Till Tilt’s $65,000 GTD. These cashes added over $75K to his bankroll.

A few months later he final tabled three major tournaments in one 24hour period, including a 2^nd place finish in the PokerStars  $250,000 GTD. He took home a little over $100K for his success and made a name for himself in the online community.

Ebanks was still looking to broaden his horizons and he wanted to start playing live. His first major win came in the $1K No Limit Event at 2009 EPT Sanremo. He took home $100,842 for the win. That same month he cashed for $46,020 in the EPT – Grand Final, Monte Carlo Main Event.

His next big cash came in March of 2010 when he came in 3^rd at the WPT Bucharest, Bucharest 3K No-Limit Hold’Em. He cashed for $79,948. The following month he had two $50K scores, one at the EPT San Remo, Sanremo and one at the EPT Grand Final, Monte Carlo.

Ebanks next big score was going to come in the 2011 WSOP. Ebanks entered event #46 and was up against some stiff competition. The starting field of 474 was reduced to 162 players at the end of Day 1. Some of the players still in the running included Huck Seed, David Benefield, Bertrand “Elky” Grospellier, and POY frontrunner Ben Lamb.

Day 2 ended with 22 players left. On Day 3 the final table was reached and there were some very strong players including Bertrand “ElkY” Grospellier, Chris Moorman, and Mike Sowers.  Ebanks was in the lead with 3,150,000 in chips. Moorman was 2^nd in chips with 2,650,000 and Elky had 2,575,000.

Day 3 ended with two players left. After Elky was eliminated in 3^rd place it was down to Moorman and Ebanks. Ebanks had a chip lead of almost 3-1. When action finished for the day Ebanks had 11,015,000 in chips and Moorman had 3,215,000 in chips.

The final hand of the event saw Ebanks move all in on the turn with top pair and a King high flush draw. The flop was 3d-Qs-Td and the turn was Kh. Moorman called off his remaining chips with the Jc-7d. Ebanks had Kd-4d. The river was a 9d and Ebanks won the tournament.

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