The phrase 'long-sought' is tossed around frequently in the poker world, especially when it comes to a player winning his first major event. There are few players who can match well-known tourney veteran Roland Israelashvili in that regard, and now, one of the 'best players without a WSOP bracelet' has now removed himself from that list as well.
Israelashvili, playing as 'prngls12' on WSOP.com, took down Event #20 of the ongoing WSOP Online domestic series, $400 PLOSSUS PKO 6-Max, topping a 444-entry field to earn $23,519.85 and that long-sought first World Series of Poker bracelet. The triumph came in Israelashvili's 515th WSOP cash. He's the WSOP's all-time leader in combined cashes, including both bracelet and ring events, live or online, and he's been the leader in that category for several years, ahead of Arkadiy Tsinis (460 cashes), Ari Engel (356), and hundreds of thousands of other WSOP players.
Israelashvili has also won 11 Circuit rings, ranking him in a tie for ninth all-time with John Holley, and his list of poker accomplishments is long. The Hendon Mob database credits him with 721 reported tourney cashes over the past 20 years. Yet that bracelet had eluded the New York-based traveling pro for many years.
Engel, a good friend of Israelashvili, was the first to post publicly about the no-bracelet streak finally ending:
