John Riordan Wins WSOPC Palm Beach
On Wednesday, John Riordan from Florida became the youngest World Series of Poker Circuit champion, taking down the $1,500 Main Event at Palm Beach in Florida at just 19.
It was the first time the WSOP Circuit had travelled to the Palm Beach Kennel Club, with the change in venue attracting a huge player pool, which required two starting days to accommodate for the extra players.
There were a total of 712 players which created a prize pool of $1,035,960, which was a record for any live poker tournament in Florida.
On Tuesday, when the final table action got underway, Riordan was the overall chip leader, holding significantly more chips with 4.5 million. Second in chips was Mike Morton, who was playing with two million in chips, and Jon Brody was third in chips with 1.5 million.
With the majority of the final table playing with deep stacks, it took nearly two hours before any player was to be eliminated from the final table.
Jerry Timmons began the final table as one of the shortest stacks. After picking up pocket queens he moved all-in against Thomas Aprea who called with A-J suited. Aprea ended up hitting trips by the river, eliminating Timmons in ninth place.
Jesse Okonczak found it difficult to gain any momentum from the start of the final table, and eventually made a move with Q-3, but he was snap called by Riordan with K-Q and the best hand held up.
One of the most accomplished players at the final table was Brody, with over $400k winnings on the live tournament circuit to date. Most recently, he hadn't been playing professional tournament poker for some time due to his responsibilities as a father and business man, however, the WSOP Palm Beach Main Event marked his return to poker and he showed no signs of rust. After receiving a few bad beats he was eventually eliminated in sixth place.
Riordan then proceeded to knock out Austin Buchanan from the tournament in fourth place and Aprea in third, and the heads-up match was to be decided between Riordan and Morton.
After a slow start to the heads up battle, Riordan was able to make a really good read after being faced with an all-in from Morton on a board of 6-5-3-3, Riordan called with pocket tens, and Morton could only show 6-4, but there was a sweat with the open ended straight draw present, however the river blanked. Just a few hands later, Riordan won the WSOP Circuit Florida Main Event, taking home $210,180 for first place prize money.
