After over 11 hours of card-based combat, veteran poker professional John “Johnny World” Hennigan earned his third lifetime World Series of Poker bracelet in taking down arguably the WSOP’s most prestigious title in the $50,000 Poker Players’ Championship.
Coming to the final table, 2014 WSOP bracelet winner Brandon Shack-Harris (4.101 million chips) was ruling over the final eight players from the 102-runner field. He was closely marked by Abe Mosseri’s 3.485 million stack, while Frank Kassela (2.057 million), Hennigan (1.878 million), Chun Lei Zhou (1.389 million), Jesse Martin (840K), Melissa Burr (661K) and Allen Kessler (439K) rounded out the unofficial final table. Only seven of these players would earn an official WSOP final table mark on their resumes as, within minutes of the opening bell, that would be determined.
Opening the day with Seven Card Stud Hi/Low, Kessler would find himself eventually getting all his chips to the center against Mosseri by the time Seventh Street appeared. Mosseri, showing a strong 7-9-8-10 in his up cards, turned over his A-K-6 in the hole to show that he had made a solid straight. Kessler, with a 5-J-5-9 to go to the fight with, could only show a K-K-2 in his hole cards; the resulting two pair wasn’t enough to topple Mosseri’s straight and it send Kessler to the rail in eighth and short of an official WSOP final table.
Kessler’s departure meant that, for the first time, a woman made the PPC’s final table. Melissa Burr (who was joined by Vanessa Selbst in becoming the first women to enter the tournament) and her history making drive to this table was stunted somewhat in her being the first person eliminated at the final table. After taking a beating from Mosseri and Zhou that left her with scraps in Stud Hi/Low, Burr couldn’t complete her flush after starting with four hearts against Hennigan, who made quad Aces that would have crushed Burr’s flush anyway. As she was relegated from the event in seventh place, the gathered throng in “The Mothership” along with her fellow players applauded her groundbreaking efforts.
Down to six players, the players would let a 2-7 Triple Draw round go by with no action before entering into a No Limit Hold’em round. Shack-Harris extended his lead during that phase of the game and then pushed Martin further down the ladder during Stud. Martin would prove to be resilient, however, getting a double up through Kassela and chopping some chips from the stack of Zhou in Stud to get back over the million-chip mark. After the players moved through Omaha Hi/Low and Razz, a welcomed break came with Shack-Harris still atop the table.
Kassela could never get any traction at the final table, failing to win pots in Pot Limit Omaha, Limit Hold’em and Stud Hi/Low before being crippled to 100K in chips by Shack-Harris in Stud. Kassela’s final hand would be in that Stud round as he shipped his remaining stack to Hennigan in being eliminated in sixth place.
As the game shifted to Omaha Hi/Low, the next departure would be booked. On a 2-7-K-8 flop and turn, Zhou would push his final chips into the center against Mosseri and Hennigan and, after Mosseri and Hennigan checked a six on the river, Zhou showed a K-9-6-2 for a flopped two pair. As is typical with Omaha, however, what starts as a winner on the flop often gets run down by the river. Mosseri showed a Q-4-2-9 that earned a flush for the high hand and Hennigan an A-4-7-10 that made a low in sending Zhou out of the tournament in fifth place.
Shack-Harris continued to pound his tablemates as, in Omaha Hi/Low, he scooped Mosseri and would build his stack over seven million chips at the break. Martin had recovered nicely with his 4.2 million and Hennigan (2.825 million) and Mosseri (840K) were looking to get back in the match.
Following the break, Hennigan would begin his march to the championship. He took two big pots from Shack-Harris to pull within 1.6 million of the leader, but Martin kept pace by tackling Mosseri in 2-7 Triple Draw to get over six million in chips. Following Shack-Harris’ knockout of Mosseri in fourth place, the final three men – Shack-Harris, Hennigan and Martin – were only separated by about two million in chips.
Hennigan used LHE as his major moving force. He would chip up in that discipline through both of his opponents to take over the lead heading to 2-7 Triple Draw but, by the time that round ended and the players went to the dinner break, Hennigan was once again in third behind Shack-Harris and Martin.
After dinner, the players settled in for a battle that would last into the wee hours of Friday morning. Shack-Harris kept the pressure on his opponents, maintaining a seven million chip stack through an entire round of the mixed-game format, but a major PLO clash would change the course of the tournament.
After Hennigan three-bet the action pre-flop against him, Shack-Harris called to see an A-3-7 flop. Hennigan pulled out a pot bet of 1.32 million and Shack-Harris potted him, forcing Hennigan to call off his remaining stack. Hennigan’s A-Q-9-7 had flopped two pair but Shack-Harris had flopped a world of opportunities with his Q-J-10-9. An eight on the turn gave Shack-Harris even more outs, but a King on the river wasn’t one of them. In that hand, Hennigan went from the basement to the chip lead and Shack-Harris dropped to second.
Now it was Hennigan’s turn to power through the table and he did. Through LHE, PLO, Stud Hi/Low and Triple Draw, Hennigan would eventually top the 10 million chip mark. Although Shack-Harris would oust Martin in third during the NLHE round, he was still facing an uphill battle with his 3.77 million chips against Hennigan’s 11.53 million going to heads-up play.
Although Shack-Harris put up an outstanding fight, the disparity was just too much. Hennigan broke down Shack-Harris’ chip stack in Triple Draw before the final hand came in NLHE. Moving all in from the button, Shack-Harris saw Hennigan make the call and table a leading A-10 against Shack-Harris’ K-7. An uneventful J-J-9-4 flop and turn kept Hennigan in the lead and, needing a King or a seven to come from behind, Shack-Harris instead saw another four on the river to give the WSOP bracelet, the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy and the championship to John Hennigan.
1. John Hennigan (United States), $1.517,767
2. Brandon Shack-Harris (United States), $937,975
3. Jesse Martin (United States), $594,570
4. Abe Mosseri (United States), $402,696
5. Chun Lei Zhou (Macau), $286,122
6. Frank Kassela (United States), $212,829
7. Melissa Burr (United States), $165,435
