Joe Johnson won the action-packed PokerStars Festival London £2,200 High Roller event that extended into an unscheduled third day of play to scoop a first-place prize of £59,912 and a PokerStars-stamped trophy for his efforts.
Aged 23, Johnson is a frequent visitor at London’s Hippodrome Casino which currently plays host to the first PokerStars Festival for the year. However, the player has been fostering preference for cash games. Yesterday’s triumph has become his best live tournament accomplishment.
The £2,2000 High Roller drew 166 unique entries and 12 re-entries. The interest in the event resulted in a hefty prize pool of £345,320 being generated. Under the original schedule, the name of the champion was supposed to become clear on Day 2, January 25. However, late on Wednesday, the remaining five players were all deep-stacked and it did not look like they were ready to give up on the title that easily.
There was nothing else left for organizers but to announce an additional third day. Day 3 play kicked off with Johnson holding almost twice as much as his closest opponent in the chip counts chart. However, all survivors had no less than 20 big blinds left, which promised quite some action.
Winning the High Roller event indeed proved to be a challenging task for Johnson. However, that was exactly what made his triumph so sweet.
When the field was finally reduced to just two players on Thursday – the young Brit and Enzo Del Piero – the latter suggested that a two-way deal was set. Johnson, however, wanted to see where the chips will head to. At one point, the two players got almost even and that was when the deal was finally reached.
Johnson and Del Piero agreed to split what had remained of the prize pool, leaving £3,000 and the trophy for the champion. In the final all-in confrontation for the evening, Johnson’s [As][Jd] stood up against his opponent’s [Ah][9c] to secure him with the title. Del Piero scooped £56,678 for his deep run into the event.
The PokerStars Festival London is set to close on Sunday, January 29, when the £990 Main Event final table as well as the final day of the PokerStars Cup £330 No-Limit Hold’em will be played.
