Reid defeated Peder Berge heads-up following a marathon final table to win his first WSOP bracelet and the $113,459 top prize. A regular in the cash games at the Borgata in Atlantic City, it was the culmination of a dream Reid had for himself.
“It means a lot. It is something I set out to do this year," Reid shared with PokerNews after his victory. "I really didn’t think I would accomplish it. It was just a stretch goal. So I’m very, very surprised I actually got it. It feels amazing. The money is irrelevant. The bracelet is everything.”
It almost never happened. Reid came back from the dinner break at the bottom of the leaderboard among the four remaining players. He expected to be eliminated and told everyone he would soon be on his way back home.
“I expected to go out in fifth place," Reid said. "In fact, I sent out a message to my girlfriend saying, sorry, bad news. Things just turned around. I just got very lucky. Very, very lucky.”
Final Table Results
Place
Name
Country
Prize
1
Jermaine Reid
United States
$113,459
2
Peder Berge
United States
$70,126
3
John Hoang
United States
$48,138
4
John Monnette
United States
$33,734
5
Esther Taylor
United States
$24,145
6
Carol Fuchs
United States
$17,658
7
Espen Sandvik
Norway
$13,202
8
John Racener
United States
$10,095
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Day 3 began with 13 players remaining out of a starting field of 372. Joseph Kupresanin, Richard Bremer, Glenn Cozen, Perry Friedman, and Joe Ranciato all hit the rail early in the day, bringing the field down to the final table of eight.
John Racener, who began the day as chip leader, was eliminated in eighth place, followed by bracelet winners Espen Sandvik (seventh) and Carol Fuchs (sixth). Esther Taylor, making her sixth WSOP final table appearance, would be the next to fail, but not before some controversy.
Taylor was involved in a big pot against John Monnette that went to seventh street. Taylor had just 10,000 chips behind and received the 3♥. When the dealer gave her the card, it hit her chip stack in the middle and flipped over. Monnette protested, and after a long pause, as a tournament official was called, it was ruled the card must be replaced.
Taylor failed to improve on the hand and was eliminated soon after. Monnette himself would finish in fourth place, just missing out on his fifth bracelet and second this year, but not before having some choice words for the dealers.
Esther Taylor
Then came the marathon three-handed session, as Reid, Berge, and John Hoang exchanged chips for more than three hours. Finally, in an all-in pot between Berge and Hoang, Berge turned up the A♦ to go with his A♥A♠J♣Q♣7♥J♦ to make a full house and beat Hoang’s 4♦4♥4♠5♦10♦2♥K♦.
Heads-up play would take nearly another two hours before Reid made a straight with 8♥6♠10♣5♦2♦4♥3♣ to beat Berge’s A♣Q♠7♥2♣2♠Q♣4♣ for two pair.
Reid nearly went wire-to-wire in the tournament. He had the chip lead after Day 1 and kept that momentum all the way to the end. Even more remarkably, he did it while also working his day job. Reid is Vice President of Global Integration Systems at a tech company in New York. With the three-hour time difference between New York and Las Vegas, he worked during the day and finished just as this tournament was starting.
He was also in a hurry to leave the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino. He expected to be at the airport to fly back to New York by 9 p.m. PST. He managed to reschedule for 7 a.m., just four hours after the tournament was completed.
Reid now has a piece of gold jewelry to carry in his luggage.
