Brock Parker opened for 25,000 and received a call from Robert "Uncle Krunk" Panitch on the button. Max Steinberg came along from the big blind and three players saw a flop of . Steinberg checked, Parker bet 36,000 and Panitch raised to 75,000. Both Steinberg and Parker folded and Panitch won the pot.
Action folded around to WSOP bracelet winner Max Steinberg in the cutoff and he opened for 36,000. A short-stacked Tim Bowman then moved all in for 90,000 from the small blind, Jonathan Hilton folded the big and Steinberg made the call.
Steinberg:
Bowman:
Bowman got it in good, but he was racing. The flop paired Steinberg's ace, but it also delivered Bowman a set. The turn locked up the hand for Bowman, and after the meaningless was run out on the river for good measure, he received a much-needed double.
Brock Parker opened to 26,000 from the hijack seat, Jeremy Ausmus three-bet to 60,000 on his direct left, and Max Steinberg cold four-bet to 180,000 out of the big blind. Both Parker, and Ausmus folded, and Steinberg took down the pot.
In the first hand of the National Championship final table, Jonathan Hilton opened for 24,000 and received calls from Nicolas Vaca-Rondon and Joe Tehan in the hijack and big blinds respectively. Tehan checke the flop, Hilton continued for 32,000 and only Vaca-Rondon called.
After the dealer burned and turned the , Hilton slowed down with a check and then folded when Vaca-Rondon fired out 44,000. First blood to the Colombian.
The remaining eight players have been introduced by tournament official Jordan Cutter and escorted to the stage by the lovely Southern Comfort Girls. Cards are now in the air!
Joe Tehan, 32, is a professional poker player from Carpinteria, California. He is one of the four players who bought into this event for $10,000, earning 341.29 player of the year points in the past two WSOP's. Beyond poker, Tehan's interests lie with golf, gambling, and his 13-month old son.
Predominantly a cash game grinder, Tehan has over $3.8 million in career live tournament earnings, and cashed nine times at the 2012 WSOP. In 2008, he made his deepest run in a bracelet event, earning $43,796 for a sixth-place finish in a $1,500 Pot-Limit Hold'em event.
Tehan's largest career cash came in 2006, when he won the WPT Mandalay Bay Poker Championship, earning $1,033,440. Tehan has six other six-figure scores, including another big win in the 2010 North American Poker Tour Los Angeles Main Event. He earned $725,000 for defeating Christopher DeMaci heads up.
With the shortest stack at the table, Tehan has some work to do. But if he is to double up early on, he will certainly be a threat to his seven opponents at the table.
Max Steinberg, who paid $10,000 to play in this year's National Championship, is just one of two World Series of Poker bracelet winners at today's final table. The 24-year-old from Fairfield, Iowa won his gold bracelet in last year's WSOP Event #33 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em for $440,238. Steinberg topped a field of 2,795 in that event including a final table that housed Ryan Laplante (7th-$56,372), David Nicholson (6th-$75,314), Dylan Hortin (4th-$139,258) and Matt Stout (3rd-$192,813).
A professional poker player who has an identical twin brother who also plays poker, Steinberg has five total WSOP cashes for $832,162, including a runner-up finish back in 2010 WSOP Event #8 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em for $352,916. He may not be familiar with the WSOP Circuit, but no one at this final table, with the exception of Brock Parker, has as much experience competing for a WSOP bracelet.
Married to his high school sweetheart, with whom he has a 2-year-old, Bowman is a 30-year-old roofer from Hickory, North Carolina. His real name is John Timothy Bowman, and while he's been reported on the Circuit as "John Bowman" up to this point, he has informed PokerNews that he prefers "Tim Bowman" as John is his dad.
Given the National Championship is his just his third live tournament, Tim Bowman is most certainly the Cinderella story of today's final table.
With that said, he faces an uphill battle as second shortest stack at the final table.
Jonathan Hilton earned his way into the National Championship after finishing in 23rd place on the National Leader Board with 167.5 points. That was thanks to eight cashes for $87,766 in the 2012-2013 World Series of Poker Circuit season, including a ring win at Horseshoe Council Bluffs Event #8 $365 No-Limit Hold’em for $16,576.
Not only has the 23-year-old from Chattanooga, Tennessee found success on the Circuit, he’s also done quite well at the WSOP in Las Vegas thanks to a runner-up finish to Dominik Nitsche (who also played the National Championship) in Event #59 $1,000 No-Limit Hold’em last summer, good for $405,156.
"I couldn't have done anything in life without Christ. I want to give him the glory," Hilton said after making the final table. "My daughter Hayleigh is my life. My parents are literally the best thing thats ever happened to me, and Eric Thomas has been the most motivating force in my adult life.
. Steinberg checked, Parker bet 36,000 and Panitch raised to 75,000. Both Steinberg and Parker folded and Panitch won the pot.
flop paired Steinberg's ace, but it also delivered Bowman a set. The 
turn locked up the hand for Bowman, and after the meaningless 
was run out on the river for good measure, he received a much-needed double.
flop, Hilton continued for 32,000 and only Vaca-Rondon called.
, Hilton slowed down with a check and then folded when Vaca-Rondon fired out 44,000. First blood to the Colombian.
