WSOP
Joining Dana Castaneda, last week’s winner of Event # 54, among the first women other than Vanessa Selbst to win a WSOP event since 2007, Loni Harwood conquered the field of more than 2,000 entrants and won her first WSOP bracelet and $609,017 in cash. Having reached two other final tables at this year’s series, she also leapfrogged to third place in the WSOP Player of the Year race.
The final table featured the following players:
Asi Moshe 1,690,000
Daniel Cascado 1,620,000
Yngve Steen 1,480,000
Hiren Patel 1,400,000
Yongshuo Zheng 1,240,000
Mika Paasonen 1,060,000
Bijon Notash 1,050,000
Cy Williams 903,000
Loni Harwood 700,000
Patel was the first casualty, losing a coin flip on 10
10
to AK
of Zheng and finishing for $45,212.
Notash was eliminated next, in a dramatic three-way all in pot holding QQ only to run into AA
of Zheng. Cascado called the two players on 1010, perhaps for the pot odds. The board ran out J94K3 allowing the best hole pair to win and knocking out Notash in 8th for $59,036.
For the next elimination, Loni Harwood, who by then had grown hers stack enough to deliver a knockout herself, called Williams’ all in on QQ and saw it through when Cy tabled 1010 and the board did not save him. Cy Williams received $78,006 for finishing 7th.
Cascado lost a flip with 66 against AJ of Harwood and exited in 6th for $104,282.
Asi Moshe shoved his A7 but had a misfortune of running into 99 of Paasonen and had to leave the premises not finding a way to come from behind to beat the pocket pair. He picked up $141,124 from the tournament organizers for finishing in 5th place.
Harwood, meanwhile having risen to chip lead, went on a complete tear amassing close to 80% of all chips at the table to dominate the rest of the play and proceed to eliminate all the remaining players.
Steen headed for the exit running with his K7 into the much better KQ and got $193,265 for finishing fourth.
Paasonen could not survive the showdown of A6 against K4 after the 83489 board paired Harwood. Mika received $267,978 for his third place showing.
Loni Harwood (c) Joe Giron/WSOP
While heads-up, Zheng did muster something of a comeback and reached the stack size about 2/3 that of Hardwood, but lost all of his chips going all in on a straight against Harwood’s full house on the river.
Here is how the final hand unfolded: Zheng raised preflop holding AQ. Harwood called on J10. She checked the JK8 flop and Zheng fired a bet, which she called. Both checked the J turn. When 10 fell on the river, Harwood lead out and Zheng announced all in, which Harwood did not hesitate to call to scoop up the rest of tournament chips.
Yongshuo Zheng finished as the runner-up and received a very respectable $378,607 for his effort.
Congratulations to Loni Harwood for winning this tournament and best of luck to her at the Main Event!