It was not quite the smooth ride that he probably would have liked, but Taylor Von Kriegenbergh got the result he wanted just the same, winning the World Poker Tour (WPT) Seminole Hard Rock Showdown Monday night. For his efforts, the recent college grad won $1,122,340, a $25,500 entry into the WPT World Championship, a WPT bracelet, and a Seminole Hard Rock Showdown trophy. As a bonus prize, he was also comped one night’s stay in the Presidential Suite at the Seminole Hard Rock in Hollywood, Florida.
Von Kriegenbergh went into the six-handed televised final table as the runaway chip leader, with just shy of 4.4 million chips, double his nearest competitor. Here is what the table lineup looked like when the first card of the final table was dealt at about 4:30pm ET:
Seat 1: Abbey Daniels – 2,192,000
Seat 2: Tommy Vedes – 1,570,000
Seat 3: Allen Bari – 1,984,000
Seat 4: Taylor Von Kriegenbergh – 4,384,000
Seat 5: Curt Kohlberg – 655,000
Seat 6: Justin Zaki – 2,197,000
Within the first 50 hands, Von Kriegenbergh doubled-up both Abbey Daniels and Tommy Vedes, giving him a net loss of about a million chips, as he had actually grown his stack by a million early on. On the 74th hand, Von Kriegenbergh was out of the chip lead for the first time at the final table, surrendering the top spot to Vedes. That empowered feeling lasted almost no time at all for Vedes, however, as Daniels doubled through him two hands later, and on hand 77, he was eliminated by a surging Curt Kohlberg.
With blinds at 25,000/50,000 with a 5,000 chip ante, Kohlberg raised pre-flop to 125,000 and Vedes called from the small blind. After a 9c-6h-5h flop, the two raised and re-raised until they were both all-in, with Kohlberg covering Vedes by about 750,000. Vedes had Kh-9h for top pair and a flush draw, while Kohlberg had 6d-5d, giving him two pair. The 8d on the turn gave Vedes some extra outs for a chop, but the river was a blank and he was sent to the rail in 6th place. After that hand, Kohlberg, who started the final table as by far the shortest stack, was the chip leader with 4 million to his name.
In the meantime, popular grinder Allen Bari was fading and not happy about it. An hour after Vedes elimination, Bari tweeted, “5 handed with 2 nits a clown and a question mark.. Gonna try and grind it back from 1.3 mill.”
His rebound never happened, though, and just around 20 minutes after that tweet, Justin Zaki showed Bari the door. Zaki raised pre-flop and Bari moved all of his 1.2 million into the pot with Ad-Td. Zaki called with 5c-5h and the race was on. By the turn, Bari had picked up a gut-shot straight draw, but couldn’t hit any of his outs on the river (Zaki spiked a 5 to give him a boat for good measure), so he was knocked out in 5th place.
Ever the good sport, Bari tweeted, “Thank you all for the support.. Card dead for 6 hours watching morons smash buttons.. Gl Taylor, the rest can rot in hell..”
Kohlberg was still the chip leader with 4.4 million, followed by Zaki with 3.3 million. Von Kriegenbergh had been stuck in a slow bleed, seeing his stack get whittled down to 3.0 million, while Daniels was still hanging in there with 2.3 million.
Three hands later, on hand 102, Von Kriegenbergh was reunited with his old friend the chip lead, taking a 1.7 million chip pot to get back up to 4.3 million.
On hand 115, Kohlberg and Daniels tangled. Daniels, now with not much more than a million chips, moved all-in pre-flop with As-8d and was called by Kohlberg and his 6d-6h. None of the community cards helped Daniels and she was gone in 4th place. Down to three players, Kohlberg now had the lead back with 5.6 million chips. Von Kriegenbergh was next with 4.6 million, and Zaki had 2.8 million.
Over the next 70 hands, nothing extraordinary went down, but since the blinds were getting high, even pre-flop folds could swing chip stacks back and forth. Kohlberg grew his stack for a while, getting to over 7 million at one point, while Von Kriegenbergh sunk to 2.2 million. Zaki kept hanging in there, getting up over 3 million before taking down a raised pot pre-flop against Kohlberg to shoot his stack up to 4.7 million while Kohlberg dropped to 6 million.
Zaki eventually took the chip lead as he and Von Kriegenbergh pecked away at Kohlberg’s stack Zaki got as high as 6.8 million until he ran into some unfortunate luck on hand 185. After a Zaki raise, Von Kriegenbergh moved all-in pre-flop for about 2.6 million. Zaki snap-called, showing pocket Aces to Von Kriegenbergh’s unsuited K-T. The flop of Q-T-5 improved Von Kriegenbergh to a pair of Tens, but he still needed help to stay in the tournament…help which came on turn in the form of a King, giving him two pair. The hand held up on the river and Von Kriegenbergh doubled-up to 5 million, regaining the chip lead. Kohlberg was now in the second spot at 4.8 million, while Zaki was down to 3.5 million.
Things got even tighter within the next 14 hands, as all three chips stacks were virtually even. It looked like it was going to be a race to the finish. That’s when Von Kriegenbergh kicked it into high gear. On hand 206, he doubled-up through Kohlberg as they each had top pair, but Von Kriegenbergh had the better kicker. That left Kohlberg in bad, bad shape with just over a million chips remaining and blinds at 75,000/150,000 with 25,000 antes.
Kohlberg found some new life two hands later, though as he doubled-up through Zaki. The two were all-in pre-flop, Zaki with K-7 and Kohlberg with Q-T. Kohlberg got lucky, though, and rivered a Broadway straight.
Four hands later, Von Kriegenbergh moved all-in pre-flop with 7c-6c and Zaki called for his remaining 2 million chips or thereabouts with Ad-Js. Nothing happened on the flop, but Von Kriegenbergh paired his 6 on the turn to eliminate Zaki in 3rd place.
Going into heads-up play Von Kriegenbergh had an overwhelming chip lead with 11.125 million chips to Kohlberg’s 1.85 million. It looked like it was going to be over soon, and it was. On the 8th hand of heads-up play, Von Kriegenbergh moved all-in preflop with Qc-8d and Kohlberg made the good call with As-Tc. But a Queen flopped and then another fell on the river for good measure, giving Von Kriegenbergh the hand and the title.
Final Table Standings
1. Taylor Von Kriegenbergh – $1,122,340
2. Curt Kohlberg – $586,109
3. Justin Zaki – $415,680
4. Abbey Daniels – $286,819
5. Allen Bari – $211,997
6. Tommy Vedes – $166,272
