WSOP
Jonathan Hilton has outlasted 20 WSOP Circuit Main Event winners, 18 Casino Champions, 62 at-large qualifiers, and 27 WSOP POY $10,000 buy-ins to take home the third annual World Series of Poker National Championship for $355,599 and his first WSOP gold bracelet. The tournament, held at Harrah’s New Orleans, marked the first World Series of Poker bracelet ever awarded on American soil outside of Las Vegas. The event marked the end of the 2012-2013 World Series of Poker Circuit season, which has awarded 240 championships and gold rings across North American since August 2012.
The final table of eight included a Main Event winner (Harrah’s Cherokee champion Tim Bowman), three at-large qualifiers (Robert “Uncle Krunk” Panitch, Jonathan Hilton, and Nicolas Vaca-Rondon), and four players who had bought in for $10,000 (Two-time WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker, Joe Tehan, Max Steinberg, and 2012 WSOP Main Event Octo-Niner Jeremy Ausmus). At the beginning of play, Parker was the chip leader and Hilton sat in fourth place.
About an hour into play the first elimination on the final table took place. Despite beginning the final table in second place, Ausmus, the 2012 WSOP Main Event fifth-place finisher, was out first after running his pocket sixes into Panitch’s wired jacks.
After Colombian Vaca-Rondon went out in seventh, a massive thee-way hand occurred between Panitch, Steinberg, and Tehan. A Ten on the flop gave Steinberg and his pocket Tens a huge win over Tehan’s Kings and Panitch’s Ace Queen, sending Panitch home in the process. On the very next hand, Tehan was also eliminated, and Bowman joined him shortly soon after in firth place.
Parker’s search for a third bracelet ended after being called down by Steinberg preflop. Both men held Ace high, but Steinberg hit his 8 on the flop and sent Parker home in fourth place for $114,008.
62-year-old Panitch exited in third place shortly after the dinner break, and the table was set for heads up play. Steinberg had 2.195 million chips against Hilton’s 1.615 million.
After some back and forth play, Hilton managed to double up, take the chip lead, and set the stage for the last hand of the tournament. In the final hand, Steinberg shoved all-in on the flop with an open-ended straight draw, and was snap-called by Hilton with top two pair. The turn and the river brought no help to Steinberg, who was eliminated in second place for $219,799.
1st Jonathan Hilton $355,599
2nd Max Steinberg $219,799
3rd Robert “Uncle Krunk” Panitch $156,743
4th Brock Parker $114,008
5th Tim Bowman $84,544
6th Joe Tehan $63,894
7th Nicolas Vaca-Rondon $49,187
8th Jeremy Ausmus $38,570
