Congratulations to Harold Angle, Event #34 Champion ($487,994)
The Seniors Championship has come to an end with 78 year-old Harold Angle outlasting a record field of 3,142 to take down the gold bracelet and nearly half a million dollar first-place prize. The day started with 23 players on the march to a winner. Eliminations came fast and furious, with ten players busting within the first two hours. Among those eliminated was 2007 Player of the Year, Tom Schneider, who was the sole notable name remaining in the field. After a few more eliminations, the final table was set.
It was at the final table that John Woo built up a large chip stack and seemed to be in control of the table. He made some tremendous calls that stunned the crowd and allowed him to make it all the way to the final three players alongside Mike Minetti and Harold Angle.
Angle played a solid, aggressive game to build a stack of his own and was nearly even with Woo when a hand that changed the tournament developed. Woo held pocket queens and was up against the ten-jack of Angle, who had flopped two pair. Woo couldn't improve and Angle doubled to over 8 million while both Woo and Minetti were left with less than a million apeice.
Woo never managed to recover from his loss to Angle and was eliminated in third place. Heads-up play began with Angle holding a commanding 9-1 chip lead over Minetti. The two jockeyed back and forth for over an hour, with Minetti managing to double up early on; however, Angle's dominant chip lead proved too much to overcome. Minetti was dispatched when Angle's king-jack flopped a king and defeated Minetti's pocket jacks.
Even though he has been playing poker for over 60 years, the Seniors Championship was Angle's first major tournament and first WSOP event. The Sun City, Florida resident will take home nearly half a million dollars and a WSOP gold bracelet.
Congratulations to Harold Angle, Event #34 Champion!