John Racener Wins 2017 World Series of Poker $10,000 Dealer's Choice Championship

Card Player’s 2017 WSOP coverage is sponsored by BetOnline Poker.

John Racener topped a field of 102 entrants to earn his first career gold bracelet and the $273,962 first-place prize at the 2017 World Series of Poker $10,000 Dealer’s Choice Championship.

The 31-year-old Dunedin, Florida poker pro, who finished runner-up in the 2010 WSOP main event to Jonathan Duhamel, dedicated the win to his late mother, who passed away from liver cancer. After the final card sealed his victory, Racener took off his hoodie to reveal a white t-shirt with the words “For Mom” written on the front.

“I always said to myself that I wanted to win my first bracelet for my mom,” said Racener. “She’s always been my biggest fan, and she still is from up above. No matter what time of the day it was back home, with three-hour time [difference], she would always stay up and sweat me online all night. Even if she had to get up for work at 8 a.m. She would stay up and sweat me until she had to go to work. I just really wanted to win the first one for her.”

Although Racener earned his WSOP Circuit ring nearly a decade ago, the bracelet had eluded him until early Sunday morning. In addition to his second-place finish in the main event, he also took second in the 2014 $10,000 stud eight-or-better event, third in the 2011 $10,000 stud eight-or-better event, along with nine other final table appearances.

“I’ve been wanting this forever,” Racener added. “I’ve got so many seconds and thirds. I have over $10 million in earnings, but no gold. I’ve just been wanting to win so bad. I didn’t even look at the prize pool. I didn’t even know what first place was. I just wanted to win the bracelet. It’s all I really care about.”

The event generated a total prize pool of $930,600, paid out to the final 16 players. Among to the notables to make the money were Todd Brunson (15th), Lyle Berman (14th), Tommy Hang (11th), Shawn Buchanan (10th), Ben Yu (9th), James Obst (8th), Mike Matusow (5th), Chris Klodnicki (3rd) and Viacheslav Zhukov (2nd).

Here’s a look at the final table results.

For more coverage from the summer series, visit the 2017 WSOP landing page complete with a full schedule, news, player interviews and event recaps.

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