Ronnie Hoover Earns First Major Tournament Victory at Harrah's New Orleans
The top three finishers in the latest World Series of Poker Circuit tournament held at Harrah's New Orleans agreed to a deal. Ronnie Hoover, a 59-year-old retiree from Baton Rouge, LA ended up taking first place. His official payout amounted to $23,856. Hoover was also presented with his first WSOP Circuit gold ring, marking his first tournament victory.Hoover has a few previous cashes on his poker resume, but nothing on the scale of winning a WSOP-related tournament. The runner up was Shimiron Preis, from St. Charles, LA. He was part of the deal made with third-place finisher Jahson "Class" Spence, from Yonkers, NY. The last hand of the tournament took place when Spence lost a big race holding AQ against pocket jacks, leaving him as the shortest stack. That's when the negotiating began, ending up with an agreement which ended the tournament much earlier than had been anticipated.
This was the 15th of 19 gold ring events on this year's Bayou Poker Challenge schedule. The $500 (+50) buy-in No-Limit Hold'em Shootout was played over two consecutive days during May 15th and 16th. The tournament attracted 198 entries.
The Shootout concept was simple. The "winner" was required to survive three consecutive tables. Sounds easy, but given the stiff competition, some of the matches went several hours. For instance, the second round match between third-place finisher Jahson Spence and two-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winner Alexandru Masek lasted five hours, heads up! Furthermore, since rounds could not begin until all matches were complete, the Day One competition lasted about 15 hours.
Among the twenty players who cashed was "Johnny Chicago" Nowak, who is originally from Chicago but now lives near Dallas. "Johnny Chicago" tied a WSOP Circuit record by cashing in his fifth tournament at this series, the most by any player ever at one single tournament stop. With the Main Event still to be played, "Johnny Chicago" now has a shot at making history. He says he plans to play in the Main Event, just for this reason.
The top 20 finishers divided a prize pool totaling $80,510. After 188 players were eliminated on the first day, final table play with ten players commenced on a Sunday afternoon. There were two prior WSOP Circuit gold ring winners among the final ten. Mike Raimon won last year's Six-Handed No-Limit Hold'em championship here at Harrah's New Orleans. Ed Corrado won a title three years ago at Harrah's Tunica.
Shimiron Preis, a poker pro from St. Charles, LA agreed to second place. He cashed four times in various WSOP Circuit events, including twice last month at Harrah's St. Louis. The former 36-year-old manager collected a nice official payout amounting to $14,540.
Ronnie Hoover, a retiree from Baton Rouge, LA was the winner of the 15th WSOP Circuit event. He officially collected $14,540 for first place, plus his first gold ring. He formally worked in sales and marketing. In his spare time, when he is not playing poker Hoover enjoys fishing and playing golf. This was Hoover's first major tournament victory.
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by Nolan Dalla
posted by Kurt at 10:56 PM
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