Congratulations to Loni Harwood, Winner of Event #60 $1,500 No-Limit Hold'em ($609,017)!
Just last week, Dana Castaneda became the first woman not named Vanessa Selbst to win an open event at the WSOP since 2007. Well it appears that Castaneda started a trend, as WSOP Circuit Grinder Loni Harwood has just won another bracelet for the ladies, taking down Event #60 $1,500 No-Limit Hold’em. Along with adding her first bracelet to the two Circuit rings she already owns, Harwood will take home $609,017.
At the start of the day, there were 15 players, and in less than a level, the final table was determined. The action started immediately when Yongjun Lu and Ryan Julius were eliminated on the same hand when Hiren Patel busted both with his ace-king. From there, Jason Reynolds busted in 13th, Ashwin Sarin in 12th, Maksim Tyurin in 11th, and Cormac Ohiggins.
It took over an hour to lose our first player, and it was the aforementioned Patel. He lost most of his chips in a hand where his flopped top pair and flush draw couldn’t beat the pocket aces of Harwood, and he was eliminated shortly after by Yongshuo Zheng.
Another forty minutes went by before Bijon Notash went out in 8th, and then there was the hand of the final table. Harwood got the rest of her chips in preflop holding 
, but she was in dire straits against the 
of Yngve Steen. Harwood managed to flop a broadway draw when the flop came 
. The turn bricked, but she caught the four outer on the river, as the 
came. Harwood scored a massive double up to take the chip lead, and she never looked back.
Harwood eliminated Cy Williams five minutes later when her queens held against his tens, getting us to six handed play. It took over 90 minutes before Daniel Cascado’s pocket sixes couldn’t win a race against Harwood’s ace-jack, and he took home just over $100,000 for his efforts.
Not long after, a short stacked Asi Moshe shoved with 
, and he was in rough shape versus the 
of Zheng. He was never able to catch up, and Moshe was the fifth place finisher. Steen shoved several times with his short stack, before finally getting caught by Harwood. Steen held king-seven, and he was in rough shape against Harwood’s king-queen. A queen on the flop all but ended things, and Steen was knocked out fourth place.
Mika Paasonen looked to be in prime position to get to heads-up play when he got it all in with 
against the 
of Zheng, but an ace on the flop changed the tide. Paasonen was not able to catch up, and he busted shortly after at the hands of Harwood.
Heads up play lasted for just under two hours, with Harwood never giving up the chip lead. Zheng managed to get a double up, but the bracelet was destined for Harwood. On the final hand, Zheng rivered a broadway straight, but that card also gave Harwood a winning full house, giving her the title.
A huge congratulations to Loni Harwood, who becomes the third WSOP Circuit grinder to win a bracelet in Las Vegas this summer, and the fourth of the whole summer if you count Jonathan Hilton winning the National Championship in New Orleans in May. Not only that, but Harwood jumps up to 3rd in the WSOP POY race, as this was her third final table of the series. We hope you enjoyed all the coverage from the Rio today. Congratulations again to Harwood, and so long from Las Vegas!