The Rundown: Poker News for May 2, 2011
by Dougie Goguen | May 2 2011
Let's check in with the big tournament action from the weekend!
Florida
The stunningly-named Taylor von Krienenbergh took the lead on the penultimate day for the Seminole Hard Rock stop on the World Poker Tour. He"s competing against Justin Zaki, Abbey Daniels, Tommy Vedes and Curt Kohlberg, who aren"t poker superstars but are very much respected on their circuit for being tough competitors. There"s $1,122,340 for the first-place finisher, meaning that the action is sure to be fierce. Day 6 of this stop commences at 4:00pm Eastern on Monday.
Las Vegas
Nebraska native and recent Vegas transplant Chris Johnson won event #10 (the Main Event, natch) at the World Series of Poker* circuit stop at Caesars Palace this weekend. At 24 years old, he"s yet another online poker player who"s made the move into live tournaments and cash games and he"s quickly made a living out of the scene in the city. This is Johnson"s first major tournament victory and it netted him $153,559 and the WSOPC Gold Ring that gets you free drinks in at least a few bars around the planet.
Johnson gained momentum in the second day of tournament play and kept it going through days two and three with the final table taking a stunning two hours, forty minutes to play, making this one of the fastest final rounds in the history of the WSOP Circuit.
"I got ran over by the deck," Johnson said afterward. Everything went good for me today. I won two early coin flips and that pretty much made it smooth sailing the rest of the way."
Seven placer Brian England was outchipped at a margin of about 5:1, meaning that when he played AJ hard, he got booted, but he still earned a very nice $94.944 as his consolation prize for making a game effort in the first-ever WSOP-related tournament he"s played in.
Johnson and one other player, Adam Hui qualified for the WSOPC National Championship taking place later this month at Caesars once the Chester, PA stop winds down.
*World Series of Poker and WSOP are trademarks of Caesars Interactive Entertainment, Inc. or its affiliates (collectively Harrah's). HIE does not sponsor or endorse, and is not associated or affiliated with, Bodog Poker or its products, services, promotions or tournaments. Any promotion or tournament on this site will not guarantee your seat or ability to register for any WSOP event or any WSOP affiliated event which is at the sole discretion of Harrah's.
