Holding the lead for all but a few hands during the day’s action, Loni Harwood earned her second World Series of Poker bracelet in taking down the WSOP National Championship Friday night at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.
Harwood came into the final table the dominant chip leader in the event. With her 1.34 million in chips, Harwood held more than a third of the chips in the game. Darryll Fish (648K) and Daniel Negreanu (543K) looked to be the ones who might provide Harwood with some challenges, while Vincent Moscati (463K), Brad St. Vincent (410K), Paul Mattioda (167K) and a short-stacked Alexandru Masek (100K) looked to be fighting it out for the scraps the top three would leave behind.
Masek would be one of the surprises of the final table, getting a bit healthier early during the proceedings in doubling up through Harwood twice to pump his stack to 284K. Meanwhile, Mattioda looked to find a good spot to put his final chips in the center, which he thought he had found against the chip leader. With Mattioda moving all in in front of her for only 99K, Harwood would have probably called with a banana and a peanut butter sandwich, but it turned out she had something better. Harwood’s A-J dominated Mattioda’s Q-J and, after an 8-7-2-3-9 board changed nothing, Harwood had eliminated Mattioda in seventh place.
Now sitting on almost 1.5 million in chips, Harwood would sit back to watch one of the bigger stunners of the tournament. Negreanu, who was unable to get anything going during the final table, was reduced to 125K in chips and shoved them in against Masek. Negreanu’s pocket Jacks were looking good against Masek’s A♦ Q♦. A 10-6-5 rainbow flop kept Negreanu in the lead, but a King on the turn brought up the possibility of straight outs for Masek on top of his over cards. The river card was a Jack, giving Negreanu the set he didn’t want as it gave Masek Broadway and the hand to eliminate Negreanu in sixth place.
Masek, now a contender with more than 600K in chips, and Harwood would be the ones who would decimate the remainder of the field. Harwood capped Moscati in fifth and St. Vincent in fourth to rumble over the two million chip mark, while Masek hung Fish out to dry in third. Going to the heads up battle, Masek had pulled out to around a 200K chip lead, marking the first time that Harwood hadn’t held the chip lead since Friday afternoon.
It took Harwood all of four hands to take the lead back and she wouldn’t let Masek back in the game. She continually pounded Masek, an eight-time WSOP-C ring winner, with raises that Masek lacked the ability to call. On the final hand, Harwood moved all in from the button (as she had for the previous two times she held the buck) and Masek called, showing an A-7 to take to battle against Harwood’s pocket treys. A seven would come on the flop but it was joined by a trey that gave Harwood a set. Masek saw a sliver of daylight when he caught a five on the turn to give him a shot at a four flush, but the six blanked the river to award the WSOP National Championship to Loni Harwood.
1. Loni Harwood, $341,599
2. Alexandru Masek, $211,599
3. Darryll Fish, $152,402
4. Brad St. Vincent, $111,984
5. Vincent Moscati, $83,716
6. Daniel Negreanu, $63,647
7. Paul Mattioda, $49,203
The ESPN broadcasts of the WSOP National Championship are expected to premiere August 18.
With this tournament in the books, it’s now time for the World Series of Poker – Europe to take center stage. Scheduled for October 8-24 at the Spielbank Berlin Casino in Germany, there will be 10 more bracelets awarded on the Old Continent. Then it’s back to the U. S. in November, where the “November Nine” will determine not only poker’s next World Champion but also the final WSOP bracelet winner for the 2015 season.
