The $1,000 Seniors No Limit Hold’Em event concluded at the World Series of Poker today with Harold Angle destroying the competition at the final table and taking down the tournament.
At 78 years of age, Angle has been playing poker for nearly sixty years and is still a regular at tournaments in his home state of Florida. “I play a lot of tournaments in Tampa, what I like is that I can sit next to a 18 or 21 year-old at the table. I become a grandpa to the whole table,” Angle remarked.
As one of the oldest players in the Seniors Tournament, Angle did indeed have grandfatherly wisdom to offer, commenting after winning the event, “You need three things in poker: patience, knowledge and a little luck.” At one point during Day 1 things were looking grim for Angle who had only 400 chips left, but fortunately luck was on his side and, in his own words, he “sucked out four times the entire tournament to be here.” After sixty years of playing poker nobody can question Angle’s knowledge, and he has certainly also proven his patience over the course of the event, outlasting 3,141 other players to take home the bracelet.
When the final table became three-handed, Angle’s patience once again paid off as his JT out-flopped then chip-leader John Woo’s QQ, the hand leaving the former chip-leader crippled and Angle in a commanding position. Not long afterward Woo was eliminated and Angle entered Heads Up play with a dominant nine to one chip lead over the would-be runner-up Michael Minetti.
Angle completed on the button with KJs and made the call when Minetti shoved all in. Things looked hopeful for Minetti as he tabled his JJ, but with a King in the window as the flop hit and no help from the rest of the 99K85 board, Angle’s bit of “little luck” saw him through once again and he became the 2010 Seniors Champion.
This is not only Harold Angle’s first World Series of Poker bracelet but rather it is his first ever World Series of Poker cash, so today was a very big day for him indeed and he said happily, “I had the best time ever, but I’m exhausted.” For his trouble Angle takes home a bracelet, the Johnny Hale Golden Eagle Trophy and $487,994 in prize money.