Steve Albini, the producer of Nirvana’s In Utero and singer-guitarist in bands like Big Black and Shellac, won his second World Series of Poker bracelet Friday night at the annual tournament.
Albini, who won his first WSOP bracelet in 2018 in the Seven-Card Stud event, emerged victorious from a field of 773 players in the 2022 $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. event. The producer walked away with a first place prize of $196,000 and, more importantly to poker players, the event’s prestigious bracelet.
Bracelet winner Steven Albini reigns as the Event #32: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. champion. Albini’s triumph earned him $196,089 and a second piece of WSOP hardware.
📸 @_RKMusic_ https://t.co/eiDrd88VfZ pic.twitter.com/1BIJCSUqJk
— WSOP (@WSOP) June 18, 2022
“Everything in my life comes in pieces, in parts. Poker is one part of my life,” he said after his win,” Albini told WSOP after the win Saturday, which came just weeks after Shellac performed at the Primavera Sound festival.
“So when I’m playing poker, I try to commit to it. I try to take it seriously. I try to make sure I devote the attention to it that it deserves as an occupation. But it’s only part of my year. I only play tournaments at the World Series of Poker. I play cash games informally in Chicago. It’s a part of my livelihood, but it’s not my profession.”
At one point during the H.O.R.S.E. event, Albini sat 6 million in chips behind the leader. However, he battled back through a series of all-in bets to become chip leader at the final table, ultimately winning the tournament with a final hand of a club flush.
“The first one felt like a fluke. This one also felt like a fluke. I was all-in a million times in this tournament,” Albini, who wore a t-shirt of the noise band Jackonuts for “luck,” added. “In the Stud tournament, the bracelet that I won in 2018, I was never all-in in that tournament. I was never short of chips. But it still felt like I kind of fluked it because I beat a table full of really great players that I didn’t expect to beat. This time it felt like a fluke because I was so short on chips so often, and I kept getting all in, and I kept surviving.”
— steve albini (@electricalWSOP) June 18, 2022