Third Time’s the Charm: Patrick Moulder Captures First Bracelet and $177,045 in $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw

Play has concluded for Event #56: $2,500 Mixed Triple Draw here at the 2024 World Series of Poker hosted at Horseshoe and Paris Las Vegas. The event attracted 371 total entrants, creating a prize pool of $825,475. Of that 371-entrant field, only 15 hopefuls remained at the start of the third and final day, all of whom were guaranteed at least $8,861.

Patrick Moulder had already made two final tables earlier in the series before this event, finishing ninth place in the $10,000 Limit Omaha Hi-Lo 8 or Better Championship and eighth in $10,000 limit H.O.R.S.E. Championship. This time, after the dust had settled, Moulder was the last player standing, overcoming a final table that included bracelet winners such as Shaun Deeb and Chad Eveslage before last defeating Ian Chan in heads-up play to take home his first WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $177,045.

Winner’s Reaction

“It means so much to me,” Moulder said after the victory. “My goal coming into the summer was to make one final table. I got to one early in the summer and got knocked out right away. It was nice to have a long Day 3 and get across the finish line”.

“I didn’t take anything for granted,” Moulder continued. “I was excited as we kept getting closer and closer, and I caught a lot of good cards when we were three and four-handed, which is key to winning a tournament.”

Moulder described first getting into mixed games after getting his first WSOP cash in a 2019 in a triple draw event.

“I busted a no-limit hold’em tournament at the 2019 WSOP. There was a $1,500 2-7 Triple-Draw tournament. I had the rest of the day free, and my wife told me to go play poker. So I went, read about the game and I think I got 19th. It was my first cash and first time playing that format. I had only played essentially no-limit hold’em before, and I enjoyed the experience and table dynamic (of mixed game tournaments) a little bit more, so I’ve just kind of focused on that going forward”.

Final Table Results

Day 3 Action

The action got off to a quick start today, with several players beginning with less than five big bets and attempting to spin up their short stacks. Alan Myerson was first to fall in 15th place and it would not be long before he was followed out the door by Shawn Buchanan and Michael Boik, both of whom fell to Deeb in a double knockout.

Others who made their exit before the final table include Day 1 chip leader Ryan Ko, Russell Clayton, Stephan Nussrallah, Oscar Johansson and Amir Nematinia.

The Final Table

Moulder began the day with the chip lead and still held the chip lead going into the final table, although the stack sizes were fairly close, and several players were right behind him. Deeb came into the final table as the shortest stack but quickly tripled up to keep himself in contention. Several more double ups occured before Anthony Hu became the first final table casualty shortly after having his stack decimated by Chan in a hand of 2-7 triple draw.

Following Hu’s elimination, Chan had surpassed Moulder to take a strong lead over the rest of the field, but Moulder began catching up after making a wheel to knock out Deeb in sixth place. Deeb was followed out the door a little while later by Matthew Smith who made his exit in fifth.

Eveslage had a roller coaster final table, starting in the middle of the pack before finding himself near the top of the counts after taking a pot from Deeb early on. Eveslage would be whittled down, double up and get whittled down again after losing two badugi hands to Yuebin Guo. Several more double ups saw the last bracelet winner left in the field make it all the way to the final four before Moulder got the last of his chips in a four-bet A-5 triple draw hand.

Chan went into the final three with almost twice the chips of Moulder, while Guo was very short-stacked. Despite being short, Guo showed incredible resilience, and three-handed play lasted over two hours. Guo quickly pulled ahead of Moulder and, at one point, came close to pulling even with Chan for the chip lead. At the same time, Moulder found himself short-stacked for the first time during the day after Chan made a king-badugi and Moulder paid him off.

Once the game switched from Badugi back to 2-7 triple draw Moulder won several pots against both Chan and Guo in a dramatic shift in momentum that saw Moulder reclaim the lead from Chan while Guo was left short again. Guo almost made another big comeback after tripling up but this time he couldn’t keep the momentum going and finally fell in third place in a hand of A-5 triple draw against Chan.

Chan began heads-up play with a modest lead over Moulder, but Moulder quickly took the lead and never looked back. Moulder won several pots off Chan without showdown before leaving his opponent short-stacked in a hand of A-5 triple draw after making a nine-low and calling off a bluff from Chan who had made a pair. Chan was all in against Moulder in the same game a few hands later, and despite drawing two to make an unlikely seven-low, it was not enough to best Moulder, who had made a six-low to take the final pot of the night, the WSOP gold bracelet and the top prize of $177,045 while Chan took home a career-best score of $115,073 for his runner up finish.

That concludes our recap for this event. As always, stay tuned to PokerNews for all your live coverage needs from the 2024 WSOP.