Southern Comfort 100 Proof National Championship
Day 3 Started
2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Harrah's New Orleans
Southern Comfort 100 Proof National Championship
Day: 3
Event Info
Final Results
Event Info
Level Info
2012-13 World Series of Poker Circuit Event - Harrah's New Orleans
Buy-in
$10,000
Prize Pool
$1,270,000
Entries
126
Level
25
Blinds
20,000 / 40,000
Ante
5,000
It's Bracelet Time
![[user101598]](/img/avatars/avatar.svg){kind=avatar}
Hello and welcome to the third and final day of the 2013 Southern Comfort 100 Proof World Series of Poker National Championship. After two days of exciting action we are down to an official final table of eight, captained by two-time WSOP bracelet winner Brock Parker. Parker, who won both of his bracelets in the same week in 2009, bagged 825,000 chips. The only other players to bag more than 700,000 chips were fellow bracelet winner Max Steinberg and 2012 Octo-Niner Jeremy Ausmus.
All three of those players bought into this event with $10,000, as did Joe Tehan, who is the current short stack. The remaining four players, Tim Bowman, Jonathan Hilton, Nicolas Vaca-Rondon, and Robert "Uncle Krunk" Panitch all qualified for the National Championship on the circuit. Bowman won the Harrah's Cherokee Main Event, while the other three players accrued enough points throughout the season to earn a seat.
Final Table Seating Assignments
| Seat | Player | Chips |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Joe Tehan | 117,000 |
| 2 | Max Steinberg | 738,000 |
| 3 | Tim Bowman | 118,000 |
| 4 | Jonathan Hilton | 588,000 |
| 5 | Nicolas Vaca-Rondon | 233,000 |
| 6 | Brock Parker | 825,000 |
| 7 | Jeremy Ausmus | 799,000 |
| 8 | Robert Panitch | 338,000 |
The cards are scheduled to be in the air at 2 p.m. local time, but with this final table airing on ESPN in July, delays due to television production are expected. Be sure to stay tuned for all of your up-to-the-minute updates straight from the final table.
Seat 8: Robert Panitch -- 338,000
Robert Panitch from Northbrook, IL received an entry into the 2013 World Series of Poker Circuit National Championship through an at-large bid after earning 175 points throughout the 2012-13 WSOP Circuit season. Those points were good enough to rank Panitch 20th overall, and he earned them through eight cashes and by winning one gold ring.
From his cashes on this season's WSOP Circuit, Panitch has earned $66,542. His best result was at Caesars Palace when he won the $365 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo for $18,010 and the gold ring. He also has cashes for $14,074 and $13,033 this season, the latter of which was a 12th-place finish in the WSOP Circuit Harrah's Atlantic City Main Event.
The 62-year-old Panitch is a fan favorite among the young circuit grinders, who have affectionately nicknamed him "Uncle Krunk." According to many of them, the squirrely elder statesman learned about the National Championship points race halfway through the season and then ended up getting it.
In addition, the circuit regulars have taken to telling a story about Panitch from The Lodge Casino stop in Colorado earlier in the season. As the story goes, Panitch was railing the Main FT and went into diabetic seizure. An ambulance came and took him to the hospital, but two hours later he was on the rail with a Heineken!
Panitch enters the final table today fifth in chips with 338,000.
Seat 7: Jeremy Ausmus -- 799,000
Jeremy Ausmus has always been a quiet, solid grinder, but he really made a name for himself last fall when he took to poker's largest stage — the 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event final table. As a member of the famed "Octo-Nine," Ausmus went on to finish in fifth place for $2,155,313.
Ausmus earned his way into this event by being one of the 100 WSOP Player of the Year qualifiers, where he ranked 35th overall. Last year, Ausmus cashed a whopping nine times at the WSOP, and four times in 2011. Outside of his massive success in the Main Event, Ausmus' WSOP cashes in 2012 were highlighted by a 10th-place finish in the $2,500 Mixed Hold'em for $12,964 and a 21st in the $5,000 No-Limit Hold'em for $28,793.
In 2013, Ausmus has already showed that he's ready for another big year. He took 12th in the World Poker Tour L.A. Poker Classic for $70,970, fifth in the WSOP Asia-Pacific No-Limit Hold'em Accumulator for $56,865, and then won the Venetian Deep Stack Extravaganza $2,500 Main Event for $121,853.
Ausmus is married with two children: a two-year old girl and an 18-month-old boy. Under interests he listed "guitar, piano and scotch."
Ausmus enters the final table second in chips with 799,000, just 26,000 behind leader Brock Parker.
Seat 6: Brock Parker -- 825,000
In 2009, Brock Parker, a 31-year-old professional poker player from Silver Springs, Maryland, won two World Series of Poker bracelets in back-to-back games—Event #14 $2,500 Limit Hold’em-Six Handed for $223,697 and Event #19 $2,500 No-Limit Hold’em-Six Handed for $552,745.
In the former event, Parker defeated a field of 367 players, including a final table that included Kyle “KPR16” Ray (6th-$31,966), Barry Shulman (5th-$43,201) and Daniel Negreanu (2nd-$138,280). In the latter, Parker topped an even larger field (1,068 players) and defeated the likes of Brian Meinders (8th-$54,777(, Clayton Newman (6th-$76,123) and Joe Serock (2nd-$341,783) on his way to victory.
All told he has 27 WSOP cashes for $1,468,790. Parker will obviously add to that total here today as he seeks his third gold bracelet. It's also worth noting that Parker won the Borgata Fall Open $2,500 Main Event for $372,568, and aside from being a top-notch poker player, he's also accomplished on the Magic the Gathering Pro Tour.
Parker, who paid $10,000 to play the National Championship, enters today's final table as the chip leader with 825,000.
Seat 5: Nicolas Vaca-Rondon -- 223,000
Nicolas Vaca-Rondon earned 160 points on the 2012-2013 World Series of Poker Circuit, which was 28th on the National Leader Board and enough for an at-large bid into the National Championship.
During that time the 25-year-old from Bogota, Colombia racked up ten cashes for $103,621, which included a ring win in Harrah’s Cherokee Event #1 $365 No-Limit Hold’em for $51,005. Additionally, Vaca-Rondon has three WSOP cashes for $24,973 with the majority of that coming from a fifth-place finish in the 2012 WSOP Casino Employees Event for $15,359.
Interestingly, Vaca-Rondon used to work as a dealer at Harrah’s New Orleans, the venue for today’s National Championship final table. Even though he hails from a different continent, Vaca-Rondon does have a little home field advantage.
Vaca-Rondon, now a full-time poker player who says he’s going to the World Cup in Brazil next year, begins the final table sixth in chips.
Seat 4: Jonathan Hilton -- 587,000
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.
Hilton begins the final table fourth in chips.
Seat 3: Tim Bowman -- 118,000
When the National Championship started two days ago, 20 Main Event champs from the 2012-2013 World Series of Circuit were in attendance. Now, just one remains in Tim Bowman, who defeated a field of 856 players to win the Harrah's Cherokee $1,675 Main Event in April for $250,380. Amazingly, that was Bowman's first-ever poker tournament!
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.
Seat 2: Max Steinberg -- 738,000
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.
Seat 1: Joe Tehan -- 177,000
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.