Home / Poker News June 2009 / Travis Johnson wins $1,500 NL Holdem event
Travis Johnson wins $1,500 NL Holdem event
Posted by: James Carter. - Sat, 2009-06-06 14:31
Event #7 of the 2009 WSOP, the $1,500 NL Holdem one featured a starting field of 2,971 players, out of which 33 survived to Day 3. Although initially Day 2 was supposed to set the final table, officials had called the hostilities off when there were still 33 players in contention. As a result of that, the final day of the event featured 33 players, 32 of which would fall to Travis Johnson by the end of it all.
Johnson took down a $666,853 prize to go with his gold bracelet, and all players showing up for the final day action were guaranteed a payout of $15,429.
Craig McConville started the day in the chip lead and he would carry that edge right through to the final table. Will Heger was the first victim of day 3, eliminated by Kam Low on a K,Q vs A,Q matchup.
By the first break, only 18 of the initial 33 players were still in contention. Those who had been hoping for a quick end to the hostilities though would be in for a nasty disappointment. After the first break, play slowed down and then it almost ground to a halt. By the second break, there were still 11 players left and that was 4 whole hours into the day.
Things would get worse from there as none of the players involved was in too much of a hurry to go home. It took an additional two and a half hours for the final table to take shape. Jacob Kalb – one of the best stacked players early in the day - became the final table bubble boy, when his pocket jacks were cracked by Craig McConville’s Ah, Kh.
After the start of the final table action, things got rolling again and two players busted out within the first 40 minutes. These players were Kam Low and James McClain.
After that promising start, play once again slowed to a crawl. An exhausting two and a half hours later, Walter Wright finally headed to the rail, followed by Brian McInnis.
McConville, who’d had an excellent day up to that point, turned the aggression on too much and ran his pocket Jacks into Travis Johnson’s A,10 who went on to spike an A on the flop to send McConville to the rail too.
Steve Karp eliminated Mark Salinaro about an hour later and Mike Ciotola was eliminated in 3rd by Johnson to set the heads-up stage.
The heads-up lasted for 40 minutes and the final hand featured Karp’s pocket 5s sunk by Johnson’s A,Q on a board of K,10,4,Q,J.
