Limit Hold’em might be one of those relic games from the past that kids today have no idea about, but it is still loved by those who enjoy straying from the NL/PLO pathway.
Ian Johns is one of those who always come back to this technical format, and after last night we can understand why. These $10,000 championship tournaments are phenomenally tough so winning one of them twice is a special achievement.
Johns is also now the owner of four WSOP bracelets. He broke his duck in 2006 and then scored a double in 2016 but was facing a dry decade until defeating Viktor “Isilidur1” Blom last night.
“The satisfaction of getting it done and knowing that I can come here and be competitive over so many years, just feels really good.
“When I was 18 I started playing Limit Hold’em a lot online, I just became obsessed with that game and that game only – studied forums, played a gazillions of hands, playing eight tables – like for years and years. And then when I moved on to live play I [continued] to play a lot.”
This latest win required Johns to navigate through a field of 118 entries to grab the biggest slice of the $1,097,400 prize pool.
Action Recap
Even though the field was small to start with, it would still take three days of play to decide a winner. Day 3 saw nine players return to the playing hall but Scott Bohlman had only three chips in front of him and lasted barely a quarter of an hour.
Daniel Negreanu, seeking an eight bracelet win after ending a decade-long dry spell last year, was then the shortest stack and he too couldn’t get any kind of momentum built up, exiting the event in 8th place for a $31,316 prize after tangling with David Lieberman.
Lieberman looked like he was on a tear but in reality he was bleeding chips in the small pots. His run came to an end when his jack-deuce failed to beat Max Hoffman’s pocket nines.
Next we saw Hoffman and Ryan Bambrick exit the stage minutes apart in sixth and fifth places respectively for prizes of $50,915 and $67,782.
With four-handed play imminent, the players went on a break while the streaming set-up was prepared. Pedro Neves was the man with the most to do when play resumed but a flop bluff with bottom pair on a 10♥ 5♠ Q♥ board was untimely when Johns called it off with K♣ Q♦ to send him home with $92,774.
It took more than three hours to set-up the heads-up battle. A mixed up session where Anthony Zinno, then Viktor Blom, then Ian Johns held the lead. By the time the players went on another break, Johns held more than two thirds of the chips in play.
From that point on, Zinno’s stack dwindled steadily into nothing, barring a single double-up, and he is out in third collecting a prize of $130,447.
Johns began heads-up with a huge lead but everyone was eyeing up Blom who was challenging for his first bracelet. It’s incredible to think that he’s still waiting for that maiden win at the World Series of Poker after many good results.
But it wasn’t to be for the Swede. Johns won a huge pot with pocket tens against ace-jack and continued chipping away in the small pots.
The final hand saw Johns raising from the button with A♣ 10♦. Blom three-bet with Q♠ 9♠ and Johns called.
The flop ran out 5♣ 3♠ 6♠ Blom check-raised and Johns called.
Blom fired the 10♥ turn and faced a raise from Johns, leaving him with a decision to make. After a short think, Blom jammed in his last four and a half blinds and Johns snap-called.
The river was the K♥ giving the title and bracelet to Ian Johns. He banked $282,455 leaving Viktor Blom to collect the runner-up prize of $188,295.
Event #41: $10,000 Limit Hold’em Championship Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Country | Prize (USD) |
| 1 | Ian Johns | United States | $282,455 |
| 2 | Viktor Blom | Sweden | $188,295 |
| 3 | Anthony Zinno | United States | $130,447 |
| 4 | Pedro Neves | Portugal | $92,774 |
| 5 | Ryan Bambrick | United States | $67,782 |
| 6 | Max Hoffman | United States | $50,915 |
| 7 | David Lieberman | United States | $39,349 |
| 8 | Daniel Negreanu | Canada | $31,316 |
| 9 | Scott Bohlman | United States | $25,687 |
