Johnny On Top Of The World

John Hennigan emerged victorious in the 2014 World Series of Poker $50,000 Poker Players Championship, arguably the most prestigious tournament in poker. For topping the elite field of 102 players in the eight-game mix event, he earned his third gold bracelet, the $1,517,767 first-place prize, and the honor of his name being forever etched on the Chip Reese Memorial Trophy, named for the late legend who won the inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E event.

Hennigan is a longtime poker professional who primarily focuses on high-stakes mixed cash games, but has six prior tournament wins to his name including two bracelets and a World Poker Tour main event title at the 2007 WPT Winter Poker Open. He had cashed in the $50,000 event twice before, including a third-place finish in 2013 for $686,568.

“It’s a very fulfilling moment to win this tournament,” said Hennigan after the win. “I came in third last year and my buddy was telling me, ‘It would have been nice to see you win it, you’ve been playing mixed games for so long.’ I didn’t realize the magnitude of the situation last year when I came in third, so to come back this year and win it, it’s amazing.”

After this latest win, Hennigan has increased his lifetime live tournament earnings to more than $6.2 million, with $3.7 million in cashes coming at the WSOP alone. This was his tenth final table at the Series.

Despite being one of the smaller-field events of the WSOP, this tournament played out over five full days of action. Here is a look back at Hennigan’s path to victory.

The Poker Players Championship Kicks Off

In 2006 the largest buy-in event ever held at the WSOP was introduced. The inaugural $50,000 H.O.R.S.E. championship was added to the schedule during the height of the poker boom. That year, the main event drew an absolutely massive turnout of 8,773 players. While it’s undeniable that the main event was still the greatest poker tournament in the world, the WSOP wanted to add an event that captured the spirit of the series as it was in its nascency: a smaller, more intimate high-stakes showdown between the game’s greatest players and maybe a few well-off amateurs.

That year the late, great Chip Reese emerged victorious, defeating Andy Bloch heads-up after a marathon battle that lasted well into the morning. The event was a huge hit with players and fans alike. In 2010 the tournament was changed from H.O.R.S.E. to an eight-game mix that also included no-limit hold’em, pot-limit Omaha, and limit triple-draw deuce-to-seven lowball.

The event has typically drawn anywhere between 100-to-150 players, with attendance often rising or falling in conjunction with whether or not the event was to be televised. This year it was not, and it drew 102 players total. Registration remained open until two hours into Day 2, and just 85 players actually came out for Day 1. By the end of the starting day, only five players had been eliminated, including the likes of superstars Vanessa Selbst and Phil Galfond.

Day 2 saw 17 more players join the event, but by the end of the day only 55 players remained. Only one prior winner of this event was among those who made Day 3: 2009 champion David Bach. He was quite short, however, and it looked like this event would likely have a brand new champion. By the end of day three, Bach and 32 others had indeed hit the rail, leaving only 22 players alive with hopes of victory.

Making The Money and Making History

Only the top 14 players would cash in this event, but the $99,388 money-bubble wasn’t the only thing causing anxiety for those remaining. One player in particular had a special sweat going into Day 4: Melissa Burr, a New Jersey native who has been playing cash games of $20-$40 and higher for a decade. If Burr were to make the money in this event, she would make history as the first female player to ever do so.

The mixed-games specialist had already made two final tables this summer, in the $10,000 Omaha eight-or-better championship and the $1,500 stud eight-or-better. With the elimination of Elior Sion in 15th place, the remaining 14 did secure a payday, and Burr did in fact earn her way into the history books.

“It feels amazing. It almost feels like it’s not real. I was super nervous coming into today. Luckily, and unfortunately, I had a really tough table but they were all friends,” Burr told Card Player after having made the money. “It was pretty comfortable and I was able to settle down, but the table was pretty tough.”

After they made the money it was only a matter of time until the shorter stacks hit the rail and the unofficial final table of nine was set.

Final Table

The chipleader going into the final nine was Brandon Shack-Harris. The 33-year-old poker pro from Chicago, Illinois had already had an incredible breakout run at the Rio this year, winning his first bracelet in a $1,000 pot-limit Omaha (PLO) event, finishing runner-up in the $10,000 razz championship and then placing third in a $1,500 limit hold’em event. Shack-Harris held more than 4.1 million of the roughly 15 million chips in play. As you’d expect in this prestigious event, Shack-Harris had to contend with some of poker’s brightest stars at this final table, outlasting the likes of Allen Kessler (8th – $134,101), Burr (7th – $165,435), Frank Kassela (6th – $212,829), and Abe Mosseri (4th – $402,696) to make it down to three-handed play with a chip lead over Hennigan and bracelet-winner and high-stakes cash game regular Jesse Martin.

For a while, during three-handed play, it looked like Hennigan, who finished third in this event in 2013, might be doomed to replicate that finish. Multiple times, he got down to around 2 million in chips with huge betting limits of 150,000-300,000 in the fixed-limit games. The seasoned pro kept his cool and rebuilt a bit, but in the end his eventual victory truly hinged on two key pots that arose in PLO.

The first came about when Shack-Harris raised to 200,000 from the button and Hennigan three-bet to 640,000. Shack-Harris made the call and the flop brought the A 3 7. Hennigan bet the pot and Shack-Harris repotted, putting Hennigan all-in for roughly 2.9 million total. Hennigan made the call and flipped up the A Q 9 7 for two pair, which was ahead of Shack-Harris’ Q J 10 9 for the time being. The 8 on the turn gave Shack-Harris a wrap in addition to his flush draw, but the K on the river was one of the few cards that would not improve his hand and Hennigan doubled up.

Shack-Harris busted Jesse Martin (third – $594,570) not long after, and went into heads-up play with a 2-to-1 chip disadvantage. The second key PLO pot arose when Hennigan opened to 200,000 on the button and Shack-Harris called. The flop brought the K 4 2 and both players checked. The J hit the turn, prompting Shack-Harris to lead out for 300,000 and Hennigan called. The 7 rolled off the deck on the river, and Shack-Harris thought for a second before pushing out a 425,000 bet. Hennigan went into the tank for a moment before making the call with the J 10 9 8 for just second pair. Shack-Harris mucked and Hennigan raked in the pot.

Hennigan was able to extend the lead, pulling away in the final round of limit triple-draw deuce-to-seven and then landing the final blow in no-limit hold’em when Shack-Harris moved all-in from the button with the K 7 and was quickly called by Hennigan with the A 10. The board ran out J J 9 4 4 to secure the pot for Hennigan and send Shack-Harris to the rail in second place, earning $937,975 for his fourth top-three finish of the summer.

With that, Hennigan secured the most prestigious tournament title of his career. Despite all of that excitement, the moment play finished, all that Hennigan wanted to do was take his seat in the $10,000 limit hold’em championship event. He had already registered earlier while at the final table and despite winning a career-defining title and a seven-figure payday all the man known as “Johnny World” really wanted to do was get back to doing his job.

“I’m already regged and I’m hemorrhaging chips over there,” Hennigan told the assembled poker media after graciously giving his time for photos and interviews before hustling over to his 16,000 stack that remained from the 30,000 in chips he paid for. Hennigan rebuilt his stack a bit, but ultimately failed to cash. Apparently even Johnny World can’t win em’ all. ♠