Jim Bechtel
Jim Bechtel ( b. 1952 ) is an American cotton farmer and former poker player.
Bechtel missed his first success at the World Series of Poker just barely, when he finished 1979 second in a $ 1,500 No Limit Texas Hold 'em tournament.
He made it to the final table of the $ 10,000 Main Event in 1988, in which he won the sixth place. Five years later he was sitting, among other things, Mansour Matloubi and John Bonetti, again at the final table. After he left the two behind him, he played heads-up against Glenn Cozen. His final hand J ♣ 6 ♥ was enough to defeat Cozens 7 ♦ 4 ♥ on a board of 8 ♠ 10 ♦ 3 ♣ 2 ♣ 5 ♦.
Thus an amateur won after 1979, where Hal Fowler won, in 1993, the Main Event. Bechtel was awarded a million $ and a WSOP bracelet.
In the World Series of Poker 2006 he succeeded the jump to the final table of the prestigious $ 50,000 HORSE tournament, in which he finally won thanks to a fourth place $ 549,120.
He had his last tournament success in 2010. His tournament earnings are $ 2.5 million.
1970, 1971: Moss | 1972 Preston | 1973: Pearson | 1974: Moss | 1975 Roberts | 1976, 1977: Brunson | 1978: Baldwin | 1979 Fowler | 1980, 1981: Ungar | 1982: Straus | 1983 McEvoy | 1984: Cellar | 1985: Smith | 1986 Johnston | 1987, 1988: Chan | 1989: Hellmuth | 1990: Matloubi | 1991 Daugherty | 1992 Dastmalchi | 1993: Bechtel | 1994: Hamilton | 1995: Harrington | 1996: Seed | 1997: Ungar | 1998: Nguyen | 1999: Furlong | 2000: Ferguson | 2001: Mortensen | 2002: Varkonyi | 2003: Money Maker | 2004: Raymer | 2005: Hachem | 2006 Gold | 2007: Yang | 2008 Eastgate | 2009: Cada | 2010: Duhamel | 2011: Heinz | 2012: Merson 2013: Riess
- Winner of the WSOP Main Event
- Bracelet winner
- Poker player (United States)
- Americans
- Born in 1952
- Man