Seattle No Limit Hold’em specialist pro Ian Johns (31) has claimed the $212,604 main prize and his second WSOP bracelet after winning the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. tournament, played over three days and nights at the World Series of Poker this week…the biggest live tournament win of his career to date.
Married and with three children, Johns is a regular grinder at WSOP and has 18 cashes to his credit, including a first place finish in a 2006 event which gave him his first bracelet.
It was at one stage a close call for Johns, who ended the first day barely in contention with the lowest stack in around 200 survivors, but he managed to overcome the bad run to ultimately best the field of 778 players to collect the lion’s share of the $1,050,300 prize pool.
His victory was despite some august company around the final table which included six past gold bracelet winners – himself, Justin Bonomo, Georgios Sotiropoulos, Andre Akkari, Svetlana Gromenkova, and Scotty Nguyen.
In an evenly matched and aggressive heads up against fellow bracelet holder Justin Bonomo the lead swung back and forth several times until Johns was able to gain more traction and ultimately despatch a tough opponent with the runner up prize of $131,412.
It was an interesting clash, as the duo have competed online against each other on numerous occasions over the past decade.
Other final tables pay days were:
Christopher Vitch $92,374
Noah Bronstein $65,866
Georgios Sotiropoulos $47,651
Andre Akkari $34,984
Svetlana Gromenkova $26,070
Scotty Nguyen $19,724