Ken Lind Wins Event #26: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship
After three long days of play and surviving a field of 4,407 players, Ken Lind was victorious in Event #26: $1,000 Seniors No-Limit Hold'em Championship. Playing in a WSOP Event was on his bucket list, and play he did, all the way to the gold bracelet and a first-place prize of $634,809. Additionally, he will be forever remembered for this victory as his name is the latest to be inscribed on the Golden Eagle Trophy.
Lind started to break away from the pack early on day two by accumulating chips by playing big pot poker. The cards continued to fall his way as he entered today second in chips and never looked back. The day started with 34 players and the few notable players left in the tournament were lost early on when we saw Hoyt Corkins (23rd), Mark Kroon (25th) and Larry Wright (26th) hit the rail on our way to the final table.
Lind started the final table where he started the day, second in chips behind Dana Ott, our second place finisher. It wouldn't take Lind long to gain control of the table and earn the chips to secure his victory. Our first elimination came when Fernando Halac was unable to make his draw against Lind. Our next elimination also came at the hands of Lind, when Jack Ward found his threes up against Lind's tens. The tens held and Ward was eliminated in eighth place.
Just three hands later, James Miller found himself all in against Randy Spain with a weaker ace. Miller couldn't find help on the board and left the tournament as the seventh-place finisher. Michel Bouskila was the next to go in sixth place when his ace queen ran into the queens of Lind and he couldn't find an ace on the board. Randy Spain (5th) and Barry Bashist (4th) were the next players to be eliminated when their hands failed to improve against Lind, who was catching just what he needed to win pots. It was three-handed play for quite a while before John Holley fell victim to Dana Ott, who played his flush a little tricky and trapped Holley for all his chips.
Heads up play began and both Ott and Lind changed gears. It was more about waiting for the right cards and was sort of reminiscent of old-school poker before the boom. Eventually, it took both players having big hands to end the tournament. Ott's trips were up against Lind's straight and the straight held. And just 30 minutes into an extra level of play that was added at the request of the players, Ken Lind won the tournament that just three days ago he was just happy be to playing.
Now that our champion is crowned, our coverage of The Senior's Championship is complete. Stay with PokerNews.com for all the latest coverage coming to you from the 44th Annual World Series of Poker.