McCorkell Bags First British Bracelet For WSOP 2012
English fans can now rejoice as Craig McCorkell has just won the first gold bracelet for U.K. during this year’s WSOP. The 26-year old poker player made a great comeback after being part of the short stack. He competed with poker pro Antonio Esfandiari and Jeremiah Fitzpatrick in the final table and won himself a big $368,593 plus a bracelet at Event #36 $3,000 No Limit Hold’em Shootout.
McCorkell hails from West Sussex, England. He said he had stopped playing cash games for a few years so he could play tournaments and for him this was the peak of his success. “This was a big deal for me,” said McCorkell in an interview.
Other players on the final table were Athanasios Polychronopoulos, who is also a WSOP bracelet winner, Joe Tehan, Roberto Romanello and Thiago Nishijima. But the greatest highlight of the event was the number of British fans who watched to cheer McCorkell on.
McCorkell and Romanello were the reasons why the Brits lingered around the table. The Brazilian crowd also went on to cheer fellow player Nishijima. “I think everyone at the final table loved it,” said McCorkell. WSOP just had its highest rated live stream since the series started on that event because of the number of fans who were watching the game intensely.
The Brit fans were so loud and it eventually drove other players from several other events to complain about it. But the English kept chanting and singing in support of McCorkell. Some of their members were even asked to leave the Amazon Room.
Noted poker pros from the U.K. were also there to witness their fellow Brit win the first bracelet for the summer. Chris Moorman, James Dempsey and Toby Lewis were there to see their comrade bag the bracelet for their country.
McCorkell was quoted saying they take it seriously and that when they come out to WSOP, they expect to win in the tournaments. Although it has been a little disappointing for them, but they still have a long way to go.
At last year’s WSOP, the Brits won a total of three bracelets and cashed in for nearly $10million. Now a few days after his bracelet win, McCorkell is all ready to go back to the tables and compete in other events to try to win another bracelet.
