Before the 2011 WSOP, Brian Rast was a little known poker player outside of the Las Vegas scene. Sure he had some decent live tournament stats and was a well known online player, but the average person was much more likely to take note of his Smurfish features rather than recognize his poker accomplishments. However, all of this has changed in a big way since Rast is the only multi-bracelet winner in the 2011 WSOP.
One of the people Rast can thank for his multiple bracelet wins is Antonio Esfandiari since the “Magician” talked the 29-year-old into playing the $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha tourney he won. Rast had just gotten home from a month-long vacation in Brazil, and he had no intention of playing in this tournament until Esfandiari not only talked him into playing, but also paid his buy-in. Just a few days later, Rast earned his first gold bracelet and $227,232 after defeating Allen Kessler heads-up to win the tourney.
Moving to his second bracelet win in the $50k Players Championship, Rast needed quite a bit of luck to deny Phil Hellmuth his 12th bracelet win after the Poker Brat made Rast go all-in three different times. But the Poway, California native survived all three coin flips, and went on to defeat Hellmuth en route to a $1.72 million first place prize.
With his two bracelet wins, Rast now has $2,710,069 in career winnings, and he is likely headed for a top 5 finish in the 2011 WSOP Player of the Year standings; Hellmuth looks to have the title locked up at this point.
