31-year-old Seattle cash game poker pro and tutor Ian Johns has earned himself $290,635 and his third World Series of Poker winner’s bracelet after besting a field of 110 to win the $10,000 buy-in Limit Hold’em event and the lion’s share of a $1,034,000 prize pool.
His achievement was made all the more impressive by the fact that it was his second bracelet this year at WSOP; two weeks back he took down the $1,500 buy-in H.O.R.S.E. event for $212,604, equalling the outstanding WSOP season presently being enjoiyed by fellow pro Jason Mercier.
And to add a little icing, Johns also cashed in another event between the two bracelets…giving him total earnings this WSOP series of half a million dollars, with plenty of action and opportunities still ahead.
Johns won his victory by coming out on top at a final table stacked with talent and experience that included David Chiu, Bill Chen, Brock Parker, and Brian Rast…all multiple gold bracelet winners.
Johns came into the final table second in chips, but fought his way through to the heads up against amateur player Sean Berrios from St. Croix, Virgin Islands, with the players evenly matched in chips.
Johns was able to take the lead early on and rapidly increased his lead, but Berrios staged a comeback and for a brief period was in charge until Johns surged ahead on a big pot to build a 3 to 1 lead that Berrios could not match.
The potent mix of experience and discipline that Johns brought to the match finally eliminated Berrios despite the latter’s six-cash record at WSOP events over the years, and he had to be content with a second placing prize of $179,625.
This was Johns’ twentieth WSOP cash and his fifth final table performance, achievements that have enabled him to accrue a total of $1,009,023 at World Series of Poker events.
Other final table cashes included:
Alexander Balynskiy $125,571
David Chiu $89,810
Jeff Thompson $65,752
Bill Chen $49,304
Brock Parker $37,888
Brian Rast $29,855
Anh Van Nguyen $24,140
There are now 41 gold bracelet events still to go this summer at the 2016 WSOP.