Johnnie Craig, a 54-year-old businessman from Texas, won the biggest-ever WSOP $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship after four days of play. The player was awarded his first gold bracelet and the first-place prize of $538,204 for his victory.
Craig prefers to call himself a recreational player. He currently manages a restaurant in his home state and occasionally plays poker. Prior to that, he served in US military, doing a number of tours of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Commenting on his impressive final table performance, Craig told interviewers that he had been so concentrated on every single hand that he had not realized he was the chip leader at a certain point. He further explained that he had a good feeling about his participation in the Seniors tournament.
The $1,000 Seniors Championship attracted a massive field of entries aged 50 and over from across the United States and from other parts of the world, as well. A prize pool of $4,049,100 was generated and was distributed to the top 675 finishers. As already mentioned this year’s edition of the event broke the record for the largest WSOP Seniors tournament in history. The previous record was held by the 2014 WSOP Seniors event, which drew 4,425 entries.
This year, the tournament was scheduled to be played over three days but due to the huge field it was extended into a fourth day. Day 4 started with six players returning to play down to a champion. Craig was sixth in chips at that point but gradually built up his stack and emerged as the chip leader at a later stage in the day.
Heads-up between Craig and Jamshid Lotfi from Lutherville Timonium, Maryland started with the eventual winner holding just a slight lead over his last remaining opponent. Craig needed a total of 47 hands to defeat Lotfi.
Hand #164 was the last one for the tournament. Lotfi raised all in pre-flop and his opponent called. Lotfi tabled [Ac][7d] and Craig turned over [4d][4c]. The board ran out [10h][9h][5s][2d][6c], helping Craig win the gold bracelet and the top prize of more than half a million dollars. Lotfi was paid $332,413 for his deep run in the tournament.
Roger Sippl from Woodside, California took 3rd place for $245,389. Joseph Somerville from Sierra Madre, California was the player to take 4th place in the event. His payout amounted to $182,536. Wesley Chong from Reno, Nevada received $136,829 for taking 5th place. Paul Runge from La Pine, Oregon finished 6th for $103,366.
Eugene Solomon from Fort Myers, Florida took 7th place to scoop a $78,699 share of the prize pool. Mike Lisanti from Canada was paid $60,392 for his 8th place. Alan Cutler from Chicago, Illinois took 9th place, good for $46,713.
