James Moore achieved a feat that not many have managed to accomplish – to win a back-to-back title in a WSOP Series event. The player won last night the $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold’em tournament to defend his title from last year. The victory accolades were accompanied by a second gold bracelet as well as the amount of $259,230 in prize money.
The Super Seniors, a tournament intended for players aged 65 or over, was introduced as part of the WSOP schedule back in 2015. In other words, two of the event’s three editions have been won by none other but Moore. Last year, the Pennsylvania-based radiologist collected $230,636 for taking down the tournament. Here it is also interesting to note that he has only one more WSOP in-the-money finish – a 149th place in the 2013 $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold’em Championship.
It can be said that this year’s Super Seniors was utter success, particularly given the fact that it improved last year’s attendance rate by quite a lot. As many as 1,720 entries joined the event’s field, up from 1,476 in 2016.
Its final day was played on Wednesday, with 22 players still in contention for the gold and the first-place prize. Kerry Goldberg led the final pack with 1,159,000 in chips and as the only one beyond the million-mark. Here it is important to note that the player managed to maintain his good position until almost the very end. In fact, Goldberg had every chance to win the title, as he was the other man seating at the final table besides Moore at the time when cards were thrown in the air for a final heads-up duel.
Final day play developed quite quickly. Players reduced the field to just 9 players within three hours of play. And action at the final table did not slow immediately after it was set. Five players left the tournament in a relatively rapid succession. With the four finalists approaching the gold, play slowed down a bit as no one would give up on the title that easily.
It took around two hours of chips swinging back and forth and players trying not to get eliminated. During that timespan, Moore built a not bad chip lead over his remaining opponents. However, by the time the original Day 3 field of 22 was reduced to just two players, Moore was the one to enter heads-up as the short stack.
Goldberg proved to be a real challenge and it was not before three hours and 132 hands of play that Moore eventually secured the title. The moment of triumph came on Hand #288, when the two players waited for the [Qc][10s][2h] flop to engage in an all-in confrontation. Moore tabled [Qs][Js] against his opponent’s [Jh][10d]. A [Jd] on the turn and a [4h] on the river secured Moore with the better two pair to seal the title. Goldberg took home $160,120 for his runner-up finish.
