For spectators prepared to stay up until past 3am at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas last Friday, there was a treat for purists as Event #3 concluded after three days of play.

A field of 622 players had taken part but as Thursday night became Friday morning just two remained to contest the Seven Card Stud High Low Split-8 or better event, one of the more intricate variations of poker that divides each pot between the player with the “high” hand (the best hand) and the “low” hand (the worst), with the 8-card serving as the dividing line.

Head-to-head were Cory Zeidman and Chris Bjorin, Zeidman ultimately going on to win his first bracelet after eight WSOP cashes in his 15 year career.

Chris Bjorin

But for Bjorin, one of the game’s old guard and most respected players, it was a another near miss, the third runner-up finish of his career at the World Series, which started back in 1989.

From Sweden, but a resident of London, Bjorin was playing the game before the internet boom, before the Rounders boom, even before the television boom, back in a time when hold’em was not the only game available in poker rooms across the land. His combined achievements include two WSOP bracelets, earned in pot limit Omaha back in 1997 and no-limit hold’em in 2000, and the reputation of one of the game’s most consistently successful grinders, particularly in games such as Stud.

Seven Card Stud takes place away from the limelight. In the past Stud final tables at the WSOP have been played on a regular table, without spectators or fanfare, with a lone tournament official waiting patiently to make it official when play ends.

It’s also not a game given to spectacular action like hold’em can generate. Stud is a game that relies on patience, memory and skill. It’s difficult and hard work, just like anything worth doing, and as such is finding a growing player base among new young players such as Shaun Deeb and Xuan Liu, taking their success in hold’em to the Stud tables.

For Zeidman and Bjorin it was a long slog into the night, hours that they’ve no doubt grown accustomed to over the past 20 years. Zeidman had the lead heads-up before Bjorin, hand-by-hand, clawed him back, levelling the scores. But he was unable to get ahead of Zeidman who, as chip leader entering the final, kept his lead to the end.

A great event featuring some great players. Look out for Bjorin in other events over the summer.