Even at only 30-years old, Jordan Morgan has been around the poker scene for what seems like forever. Well known as one of the earliest online poker celebrities, “iMsoLucky0” is well respected in the game, even if he does consider himself “semi-retired” on his Twitter page. But even with all the success he has had, he hadn’t won a World Series of Poker bracelet. Until yesterday.
On Tuesday, Morgan won the 2014 WSOP Event #44: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em after a taxing heads-up battle against Evan McNiff. Morgan, Oklahoma’s all-time leading money winner in live tournaments (thank you, TheHendonMob.com) and the Poker Player Alliance’s Oklahoma State Director, has a long history of cashes at the World Series of Poker dating back to 2006, but interestingly, especially considering how good of a poker player he is, this was only his third final table. In fact, it was only his second live win, the first coming in WSOP Circuit event in 2007. He now has nearly $1.7 million in live earnings to go along with about $1.2 million in recorded online tournament earnings, according to PocketFives.com.
Morgan and McNiff began the final table on Day 3 of the event as the runaway chip leaders, McNiff with 2,838,000 and Morgan with 1,979,000; nobody else was within a million. Things started quickly, with two players eliminated within one orbit and two more by Hand #34. After a break, eliminations continued to come fairly regularly and heads-up play started on Hand #79 of the final table with Morgan enjoying a massive lead, 6,863,000 to 1,750,000.
Anyone who bet it would be over quickly was dead wrong.
The two men played hand after hand after hand and about a hundred hands into heads-up, McNiff had not only turned the tables, but he looked like he was going to win it going away. The key point in the grueling match came on Hand #199 of the final table when McNiff moved all-in over the top of Morgan’s pre-flop raise with K-K. Morgan insta-called as the short stack with A-K and he was in big, big trouble. Down to one card, Morgan lived up to his online screen name and got lucky, hitting an Ace on the river to double-up and take the lead.
After about 80 more hands and six total hours of heads-up play, the two said enough was enough and agreed to pause the tournament and return for a Day 4. At that point, it was close to even, with Morgan having a slight edge. On Tuesday, it still took more than 50 hands, but is only about an hour or so before the tournament finally ended. McNiff raised pre-flop with A-K, Morgan shoved all-in with 6-6, and McNiff called to put his tournament life at risk. The board offered no help to McNiff and Jordan Morgan captured his first WSOP bracelet.
After his victory, Morgan reflected on the marathon contest with Nolan Dalla, saying, “I’ve played a lot of heads-up poker, so for me this was a game of adjustments. He adjusted really well pretty quickly. Then it took me a while to adjust back….we were playing a game where the other guy kinda’ knew what the other was doing, so we had respect for each other. A lot of minor changes back and forth can make a big difference.”
“It’s validation to win,” he added. “I’ve been coming here for ten years. It’s great to finally get the bracelet that I’ve always wanted.”
2014 World Series of Poker Event #44: $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em – Final Table Results
1. Jordan Morgan – $478,102
2. Evan McNiff – $295,727
3. Jason Johnson – $204,464
4. Ray Foley – $147,463
5. Bryan Dillon – $107,800
6. Robert Chorlian – $79,842
7. Joseph Iarussi – $59,920
8. Ryan Spittles – $45,554
9. Michael Anselm – $35,063
* Image and tournament information courtesy WSOP.com.
