Steve Albini Earns First WSOP Gold Bracelet

American musician, record producer, audio engineer, music journalist and passionate poker player, Steve Albini, has won his first gold bracelet at World Series of Poker. Producer for Nirvana and the Pixies has managed to edge out more than 300 players in Seven Card Stud and win a staggering $105,629! Among other competitors was six-time winner, Chris Ferguson, who didn’t succeed in defending the title, as well as, Jeff Lisandro, also a six-time winner. After the final round, Albini said there’s still hope for everybody, especially those who have played poker for decades, like him. Famous musician of the band, Shellac, had just finished a European tour when he decided to make a trip to Las Vegas for the tournament and try to win the bracelet. Albini commented that he’s completely ecstatic about the winning, as average players usually cannot outlast better players and end up as champs. It seems the field for the stud tournament was pretty weak, according to the musician, which allowed him to make it to the final table and score an immense cash prize. The World Series of Poker was running in conjunction with two other poker championships - Poker Players Championship and Seniors Event. Pursuant to Albini, this could be the reason why he managed to qualify and win. Steve Albini was also a member of several punk rock bands, including an experimental math rock band, Big Black, noise rock band Rapeman, and is currently the lead member of a minimalist rock trio, Shellac. He is also the founder, owner and principal engineer of Electrical Audio, a recording studio complex based in Chicago. The musician estimates he had worked on several thousand albums during his career, making a major influence on the development of various genres such as post-hardcore and math rock. Albini is known for his ethical view points on the music industry and production, which are against the financial exploit of artists and their sound. Being almost alone with such opinion among high-class producers has allowed him to record the music to the band's desires and satisfaction, without receiving a contribution, as if he artistically helped in creating an album. Steve Albini also refuses to receive royalties from album sales, claiming that financial exploitation of artists in any form is equal to grand theft.