Jonas Lauck Secures First Bracelet and $260,335 After 15.5 Hour Day
Jonas Lauck was crowned the winner of Event #56: $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em Super Turbo Bounty after a 15.5-hour long day at the 2019 World Series of Poker. The German professional player ended on top of a 1,867-player field as the winner and he collected $260,335 and some bounties worth $500 each. Robert Bickley had to settle for second place and $160,820 plus bounties.
Plenty of players gave it a shot and the total number of entries rose to 1,867. A lot of familiar faces gave it a shot to win a bracelet in one day but most of them didn't make it. Kalidou Sow, Bryn Kenney, Kenny Hallaert, Dominik Panka, Bart Lybaert, and Ryan Laplante all gave it a shot but failed to make the money in this event. Plenty of others did make the money as there were a total of 281 players that ended up winning a piece of the $1,586,950 prize pool.
Some of the fortunate players include Max Pescatori (191st - $1,617), Daniel Negreanu (155th - $1,762), Kristen Bicknell (129th - $1,945), Bertrand Grospellier (75th - $2,819), and Daniel Strelitz (41st - $5,468). Some players who got a little bit closer to the final table include Benjamin Zamani (26th - $8,163), Connor Drinan (21st - $8,163), and Anton Wigg (15th - $12,745).
Lauck's rail was very loud and active once he reached the final table as chip leader but he wasn't the only one with fans on the rail. Brazil's Fernando Viana finished in third place ($116,426) and both Lauck and Viana's rail sang songs during the final table. Lauck put his head down at one point and covered his ears to help him concentrate. ''The rail was so loud so it was hard to focus. Especially at this stage, you can’t make mistakes. It’s pretty expensive if you do at this stage. I tried to focus and not listen to the rail.''
The German online grinder once won over $1.5 million in an online poker tournament so it wasn't his biggest cash to date but for sure one that felt special to him. Lauck said the following when asked about this particular achievement: ''I guess one of the biggest [achievements], for sure. It wasn’t the biggest cash but the bracelet is a big achievement that I wanted to have. For me, it was a special win because I was once heads-up and I lost. I wanted to have this bracelet and it feels very good.''
Final Table Results
| Seat | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jonas Lauck | Germany | $260,335 |
| 2 | Robert Bickley | United Kingdom | $160,820 |
| 3 | Fernando Viana | Brazil | $116,426 |
| 4 | Markus Gonsalves | United States | $85,141 |
| 5 | Anil Jivani | United States | $62,901 |
| 6 | Aaron Pinson | United States | $46,951 |
| 7 | Arron Woodcock | United Kingdom | $35,412 |
| 8 | Aaron Johnson | United States | $26,992 |
| 9 | Edward Courage | Canada | $20,793 |
Final Table Action
The final table began at Level 32 with blinds at 100,000/200,000 with an ante of 200,000 ante and Jonas Lauck started the final table as the chip leader. He kept adding to his stack as he was responsible for seven of the eight eliminations at the final table.
Edward Courage was the first casualty of the final table. Courage moved all in for his ten big blinds from mid-position and got snap-called by Aaron Johnson who had aces in the small blind. Johnson improved his hand to a full house and Courage was sent to the rail in ninth place.
A few hands later, Johnson lost a big flip with queens against Robert Bickley's ace-king and was left with twelve big blinds. A couple of hands later, his tournament was over when Jonas Lauck raised under the gun with kings and Johnson three-bet shoved with ace-queen for his last chips. Lauck stayed ahead, ending Johnson’s fantastic run in eighth place.
Next out was Arron Woodcock in seventh place. Woodcock only had less than four big blinds left and needed to find a fast double up. He shoved with queen-seven suited under the gun but got snap-called by Lauck who found aces from one seat over. Woodcock flopped an open-ended straight draw but the turn and river bricked and that was it for his tournament’s life.
Aaron Pinson was Lauck’s next victim. Pinson jammed his last eleven big blinds from the hijack with ace-ten and got called by Lauck from the big blind with eights. Pinson flopped a ten on the flop to take the lead but that didn’t last as the river brought an eight and Lauck made a set to win the pot.
Anil Jivani was sent to the payout desk in fifth place when Lauck shoved from the small blind with queen-six and Jivani called, putting at risk his last nines blinds with king-eight. An eight fell on the flop and Jivani was eliminated.
Markus Gonsalves headed to the rail in fourth place when he moved all in for his last seven blinds from the cutoff with seven-five suited and Lauck made the call from the button with king-queen suited. Lauck made kings and tens taking all of Gonsalves’ chips.
Gonsalves was joined by Fernando Viana soon after when Viana three-bet shoved with ace-queen from the big blind and Lauck who was the original raiser called with nines. Viana couldn’t hit and headed to the rail in third place instead.
The heads-up portion of play only lasted two hands and the tournament ended when Robert Bickley three-bet shoved on the flop with a pair of kings in his hand, and Lauck snap-called as he had flopped an open-ended straight draw and a flush draw with ten-six suited. The turn was safe for Bickley but the river gave Lauck a straight, and a flush as well and Lauck was crowned the champion.