It was only several days ago when the poker world cheered in excitement after Jason Mercier won his second gold bracelet for this year’s edition of the WSOP. A few hours ago, Ian Johns, a cash game player from Washington, did quite the same – captured his second gold piece for this year. Johns topped the field of the $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship for his career third gold bracelet and $290,635 in prize money.
The player said that he finds the Limit Hold’em format a “super fun games” mainly due to the fact that participants need to make quick decisions. He further noted that he has spent the past 12 years in perfecting “those incremental decisions.”
As mentioned above, Johns is mainly a cash game player and annually takes part in several tournaments of his choice. As it seems, the 47th WSOP edition is particularly lucky for him, scooping 2 gold bracelets, thus repeating Mercier’s feat. Including his most recent cash, the player has now 20 in-the-money finishing positions in WSOP events. What is more, he has collected more than $1 million from Series tournaments. The player captured his first gold bracelet back in 2006.
The 2016 WSOP $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship attracted 110 entries, with those creating overall prize pool of $1,034,000. The top 17 finishers were paid. The tournament was played at Rio All-Suites Hotel and Casino over the past three days.
Day 3 of the event started with 10 hopefuls seating at the unofficial final table. There were both former gold bracelet winners and less experienced players to make it to the final day, with Brian Rast, Bill Chen, David Chiu, and Brock Parker highlighting the table.
Eventually, it was Sean Berrios, a newbie from St. Croix, Virgin Islands, whom Johns faced heads-up. Two-handed match started with the champion holding three times more chips than his opponent. Johns never let go of his chip lead and was in no serious danger of being eliminated during the duel.
On the last hand to be dealt, Johns raised from the button and Berrios three-bet from the big blind. Johns called and the flop ran out [8s][4d][3d]. Johns raised and Berrios called. The Virgin Islands resident bet again to see the [Jh] coming on the turn. Johns raised and Berrios called all in.
The eventual champion tabled [Kd][8d] against his opponent’s [As][10h]. The [2s] appeared on the river but was of no help to Berrios. The player took home $179,625 for his runner-up finish.
Russian Alexander Balynskiy finished 3rd in the event for $125,571. This has been his first-ever WSOP-related cash. Five-time gold bracelet winner David Chiu from Las Vegas, Nevada took 4th place for $89,810. Jeff Thompson from San Diego, California collected $65,752 for finishing 5th.
Two-time gold bracelet winner Bill Chen from Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania was paid $49,304 for his 6th place in the tournament. Three-time gold bracelet winner Brock Parker from Silver Spring, Maryland took 7th place for $37,888.
Brian Rast from Las Vegas, Nevada, yet another two-time gold bracelet winner at the final table, scooped a payout of $29,855 for finishing 8th. Canadian Anh Van Nguyen rounded out the official nine-handed final table to take home $24,140.
