2013 World Series of Poker Day 19: Kenneth Lind Wins Seniors Championship for $635,000
Kenneth Lind is the latest bracelet winner at the 2013 World Series of Poker. Lind won Event #26: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship early Monday morning, collecting a massive prize of $634,809 in the process. Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Mixed Max) was also scheduled to conclude, but after playing down to a final heads-up match, the tournament was extended an extra day. Max Steinberg and Isaac Hagerling will return on Monday to determine a winner.
Event #26: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship
Kenneth Lind won his first World Series of Poker gold bracelet in Event #26: $1,000 Ho-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship.
FINAL TABLE RESULTS
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kenneth Lind | $634,809 |
| 2 | Dana Ott | $390,601 |
| 3 | John Holley | $283,312 |
| 4 | Barry Bashist | $209,856 |
| 5 | Randy Spain | $156,629 |
| 6 | Michel Bouskila | $117,799 |
| 7 | James Miller | $89,281 |
| 8 | Jack Earnest Ward | $68,180 |
| 9 | Fernando Halac | $52,474 |
The Seniors Championship has become one of the WSOP’s most popular tournaments. This year, it featured 4,407 entrants, a new record for this event (besting last year’s 4,128). It’s also the largest field ever for a non-reentry WSOP tournament with only one starting day.
Several legends of the game entered the Seniors Championship, headlined by Johnny Chan and T.J. Cloutier. Former Main Event winners Tom McEvoy and Robert Varkonyi played, as well. Oklahoma Johnny Hale not only played in the event, but he also acted as host and delivered a welcome address.
From that massive starting field, only 34 players returned to Rio Sunday for Day 3. Play got off to a fast start. Within the first half hour, seven players were eliminated, and the remaining players redrew seats for the final three tables. An hour and a half later, the tournament was down to two tables. Two hours after that, only the official final table remained.
Fernando Halac was the first victim at the final table. He pushed all in with a flush draw against Kenneth Lind’s top pair. The turn and river failed to make Halac his flush, instead giving Lind a full house and eliminating Halac in ninth place.
About half an hour later, Lind scored another bustout, eliminating Jack Ward in eighth. Lind’s pocket tens held up against Wright’s pocket threes. Ward was the first of three eliminations that came in close succession. Only three hands after Ward hit the rail James Miller followed him. Miller had been near the top of the leaderboard for almost the entire tournament, finishing Day 1 in second place and leading the field at the start of play on Day 3. But with only seven players remaining, Miller found himself with a smaller stack than he had at the beginning of the day, and he took a stand with A♠10♠. Unfortunately, he ran into Randy Spain’s A♥K♠. The flop gave him two more spades and a glimmer of hope that he might outdraw Spain, but the turn and river killed that hope, eliminating him from the tournament in seventh place.
Only 20 minutes later, the table lost another player. A short-stacked Michel Bouskila moved all in preflop with A♣Q♣, but Kenneth Lind held Q♠Q♦, and the queens held up, knocking Bouskila out in sixth.
Lind then busted his fourth final-table opponent. Spain held A♠Q♦ against Lind’s K♠Q♠ and both players paired their queen on the flop. The turn, however, was a king, giving Lind two pair and the lead. The players got their chips in the middle, and the river was no help to Spain.
Just five hands later, Lind continued his rampage, eliminating Barry Bashist in fourth. Bashist had the misfortune to see a turn card, which gave him two pair but also gave Lind a Broadway straight.
Three-handed play lasted over two hours, but eventually John Holley ran into Dana Ott’s straight, setting up a heads-up contest between Ott and Lind. The two men battled for another two hours in a contest marked by cautious, strategic play, with neither player wanting to make a fatal error. Eventually, though, the deck forced the players’ hands, and a cooler ended the tournament. Lind flopped the nut straight, and Ott turned trips. All the chips went in the middle on the turn, and Lind’s straight held up, giving him the bracelet and the $634,809 first-place prize.
Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Mixed Max)
Day 3 of Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Mixed Max) saw 32 players return from a starting field of 593. At the end of play Sunday night, only two players remained. Max Steinberg and Isaac Hagerling will return on Monday for the final heads-up match.
The 32 players who made it to Day 3 played heads-up after playing nine-handed on Day 1 and six-handed on Day 2. The heads-up bracket was seeded using chip counts from the end of Day 2.
After the first two rounds of heads-up play, eight players remained. Top-seeded Brandon Cantu advanced to the round of eight after defeating 32nd-seeded Govert Metaal and then besting Daniel Buzgon in the round of 16. In the following round, however, Cantu faced Max Steinberg. After an ill-timed bluff, Cantu found himself in a deep hole. Soon after, Steinberg won the match, eliminating Cantu and advancing to the semifinals.
Steinberg was soon joined by 2012 Main Event final tablist Jeremy Ausmus. Ausmus was ranked second in chips to start the day, and his path through the heads up bracket went through Giacomo Fundaro, Justin Conley, and Chris Johnson. Johnson gave Ausmus a tough match, despite starting at a 2-1 chip disadvantage, but eventually Ausmus got the best of him.
Twelfth-ranked Jason Koon punched his ticket to the semifinals by defeating fourth-ranked Dan Healey in the round of eight. In the previous round, Koon got the best of fifth-ranked Mike Watson.
It took a while to determine the last spot in the semifinals. The round-of-eight match between Yevgeniy Timoshenko and Isaac Hagerling lasted so long that they were still playing when Koon and Steinberg completed their semifinal match. When it was over, Hagerling, who started the day ranked third, held all the chips. Timoshenko was eliminated, and Hagerling advanced to a semifinal match against Ausmus.
In the first semifinal, Steinberg jumped out to an early lead against Jason Koon who mounted a valiant comeback, but Steinberg was able to hold on. In the climactic hand, the players were all-in before the flop. Koon held A♥Q♠ and had Steinberg’s A♣J♠ dominated. The flop paired Steinberg’s jack, however, and Koon was eliminated.
The second semifinal finished at 3:30 a.m. Monday morning. Jeremy Ausmus and Isaac Hagerling faced off in a lengthy, back-and-forth battle. It ended when Ausmus pushed all in with an inside straight and a flush draw. Unfortunately for him, he was drawing dead against Hagerling’s made flush. When the dust settled, Ausmus was eliminated, and Hagerling advanced to the final.
Join us here at 3 p.m. on Monday as PokerNews brings you live coverage of the final match between Hagerling and Steinberg.
Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em started on Saturday with 2,115 runners. Only 223 returned Sunday, and when the day was over, only 16 remained. The chip leader is Masayuki Nagata, who heads into Day 3 with 1,742,000. He is well ahead of the Dan Martin, who is second in chips with 1,050,000. No one else is above the million-chip mark.
Perhaps the biggest story coming out of today, however, is the survival of tournament legend T.J. Cloutier. In an era when the game seems to be getting younger and younger, the 73-year-old defied the odds and is attempting to secure his seventh World Series of Poker bracelet. He bagged one of the shorter stacks, 335,000, but that hasn't been a hindrance thus far as he mostly hung around with a stack near the tournament average.
Notable players eliminated on Sunday include Olivier Busquet (26th), James Woods (54th), Eric Baldwin (60th), Phil Collins (80th) and Men Nguyen (156th).
Play resumes Monday at 1 p.m. Join us here at PokerNews as we bring you live updates as the tournament plays down to a winner who will claim $521,202.
Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E.
On Saturday, Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. started with 261 players. The tournament featured a veritable “Who’s Who” of the poker world, with Phil Ivey, Erik Seidel, Daniel Negreanu, Phil Hellmuth, Jason Mercier, and many other household names of the poker world vying for a bracelet in this prestigious event.
Only 151 players returned for Sunday’s Day 2, and only 28 of them will return on Monday to play down to a winner. Greg Mueller enters Day 3 as the chip leader with 430,500. The tournament is in the money, as Daniel Negreanu was eliminated on the bubble with about 10 minutes remaining in the last level of the night. In addition to Mueller, several other notable players will return on Day 3, including David Benyamine (373,500), David Bach (179,000), Marcel Luske (175,000) Chris Klodnicki (165,500), Todd Brunson (163,500), Adam Friedman (117,000), Brett Richey (74,000), and Gus Hansen (58,000).
Also returning for Day 3 is recent bracelet winner Tom Schneider. Schneider is hunting for not only his second bracelet of 2013, but also his second H.O.R.S.E. bracelet. Just a mere few days ago, Schneider was able to best a field of 862 runners and claim gold upon his wrist in Event #15: $1,500 H.O.R.S.E. Now only 28 competitors stand between him and glory once more.
Dan Kelly will return for Day 3, as well. Kelly, who has been on quite the hot streak during this WSOP, scored his eighth cash of the series by making the money in this event. During the summer, Kelly has made two final tables and is now looking to sit down at a third. Kelly won his first and only WSOP bracelet back in 2010 and his eyes are most definitely on the prize as he hunts for number two this year.
Players will return to the Amazon room on Monday at 2 p.m., where the plan is to play down to a champion. As always, be sure to follow all of the latest developments from the tournament floor on PokerNews!
Event #30: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em
Event #30: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em kicked off today with 2,108 players. After 11 levels of play, over 90% of entrants have been eliminated, and the tournament is already in the money.
Several notable players survived Day 1, including Antoine Saout, Randy Lew, and Andrew Lichtenberger. Saout, who finished third in the WSOP Main Event in 2009, bagged 131,700 in chips and leads the field heading into Day 2.
All 216 players who return for Day 2 do so safe in the knowledge they will receive no less than $1,935 in prize money. The money bubble burst late on Day 1, and the unfortunate bubble boy was Tai Nguyen, who finished third in Event #18. Nguyen moved all in with Q♦J♠ but ran into K♣K♥. By the river the board read 4♣3♥A♣9♥Q♥. Nguyen was eliminated, and many of the remaining players, now officially in the money, erupted into rapturous applause and cheers.
Join the PokerNews Live Reporting team from 1 p.m. on Monday for all of the action as Event #30 plays another 10 levels and possibly reaches a final table.
On Tap
Three bracelets will be awarded on Day 20 of the 2013 WSOP. Max Steinberg and Isaac Hagerling will face off in the final heads-up match of Event #27: $3,000 No-Limit Hold’em (Mixed Max). Sixteen players will return for the third and final day of Event #28: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Event #29: $5,000 H.O.R.S.E. will also play down to winner. Day of Event #30: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em will continue with 216 players returning. Elsewhere in the Rio, play will get underway in Event #31: $1,500 Pot-Limit Omaha Hi-low 8-or-Better.
Video of the Day
Sunday night, Ken Lind won Event #26: $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em Seniors Championship. Sarah Grant caught up with the latest WSOP bracelet winner and the recipient of the Golden Eagle trophy.
Be sure to follow our Live Reporting page for continuing coverage of every event at the 2013 World Series of Poker, and follow PokerNews on Twitter for up-to-the-minute news.
