Survivor: Jean-Robert Bellande’s 2019 WSOP Main Event run is over
The new father of twins and Survivor China “villain” standout, Jean-Robert Bellande busts the 2019 WSOP Main Event, surpassing 8k+ others.
To make the money at a World Series of Poker event goes against the odds itself. With 8,569 entrants into the WSOP 2019 Main Event (the crown jewel of the poker world) and just 1,286 making the minimum cash, you have a roughly 15% chance of getting an extra $5,000 on top of getting your $10,000 back. Survivor is, technically, a more worthwhile venture just from getting $10,000 for being at the reunion.
That goes to show just how hard Survivor China’s Jean-Robert Bellande fought to make it almost all the way to the end of Day 4 out of 10 at this event, as unfortunately, the grizzled poker pro hit the showers before moving onto Day 5. He finished in 415th place for $30,780 according to PokerNews; just one spot shy of a money jump that would have paid him $34,845.
How he busted out of the tournament is a heartbreaker similar to what we’ve seen in Survivor. As reported on the WSOP website, Jean-Robert Bellande held the best starting hand in the game with pocket aces, raising pre-flop, seeing another bet from opponent Dario Marinelli in the Big Blind. JRB responded with another bet representing a sizeable portion of his chip stack (between a quarter and a third).
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The first three community cards appeared Queen / 2 / 3 (the flop), then later a 9 (the turn), and ending with a 4 (the river). Jean-Robert’s opponent bet on every new opportunity, with Marinelli shoving his entire stack on the river. “Well, I guess this is it. I guess you have a set of queens, but I have to call cause I have aces,” Bellande replied, and he was right. Jean-Robert’s pair of aces could not beat three of a kind queens from Marinelli.
To put this in Survivor terms as best as I could imagine (it’s hard to compare), imagine you not only find two Hidden Immunity Idols at a time where they’re not plentiful and not constantly re-hidden throughout a season, but you’re given the keys to the kingdom. However, despite holding what should be guaranteed safety, you are voted out before you can use them.
The only difference here is that even if Jean-Robert Bellande shoved all-in before the flop, he still would have lost and had a ~80% chance to win even if he had a different set of five cards appear. Furthermore, putting in so many chips into the middle before “knowing” his opponent had triple-queens meant he was committed to the pot.
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All we can do now is wish him and other Survivor players in the World Series of Poker 2020 Main Event good luck in the future!