"The
Iceman cometh" ... to Win a WSOP Gold Bracelet
The winner of the $2,000 buy-in 7-Card Stud Championship
was Jeffrey Lisandro from Salerno, Italy. He is a 41-year-old investor
and professional poker player. This was his first-ever WSOP victory.
Lisandro was actually born in Perth, Australia to Italian immigrant
parents. He now owns homes in several places, including Las Vegas,
Italy, and Australia. Lisandro made his fortune investing in real
estate. He is also currently a singleparent with one child.
Lisandro is a regular face in some of the highest-limit cash games
in the world. In fact, Lisandro concentrated much of his efforts
in high-stakes cash game play before finally focusing on tournaments
in recent years.
Lisandro’s nickname is “the Iceman,” given to
him for his cool demeanor at the poker table. He commonly wears
black, and a 1930s businessman-style fedora.
First place paid $118,426, but to Lisandro, far more important
than the prize money he collected was the prestige bestowed by winning
a WSOP gold bracelet. In recent years, Lisandro was on the short
list of poker players considered to be the best in the game never
to have won a title at the World Series.
Prior to this event, Lisandro did win a $10,000 buy-in WSOP-related
tournament. He was the victor at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe in the
WSOP-Circuit championship held in May 2006. Lisandro’s win
at Lake Tahoe was also televised by ESPN.
ESPN made a last-minute decision to televise this final table due
to an exciting lineup of the final eight players.
Nick Frangos from New Jersey, a.k.a. “Little Nicky”
is one of the best “unknown” poker players in the game.
Although he has yet to win at the WSOP, he does have eight cashes.
This was his third WSOP final table appearance – with showings
of 3rd, 4th, 4th, and now second (in this event).
If there was an award for best all-around Stud-game player so far
this year, it would likely go to Nesbitt Coburn from Minneapolis,
MN. The third-place finisher in this tournament, he also came in
second earlier at this World Series, in the $1,500 seven-card stud
event. Hence, Coburn now has a 2nd and 3rd place finish in 2007.
by Nolan Dalla
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