Loni Harwood Wins WSOP National Championship

Harrah's Cherokee was the venue for the 5th annual World Series of Poker National Championships and it was Loni Harwood who took the title, the $341,599 cash prize and her second WSOP Gold Bracelet. The event was a $10,000 buy in however many players qualified via the WSOP Circuit and the 122 players in the mix created a large prize pool of $1.22 Million.

This was a very special tournament win for Harwood who instantly dedicated it to her mother who recently passed away, and she also gave a big shout out to her brother. It was in 2013 that Loni made her mark when playing at the WSOP in Vegas she managed to cash an incredible 6 times, and one of those cashes was when she won the $1,500 No Limit Hold'em event, taking home a bracelet for that great effort.

This win was no walk in the park as there were many top players at the tables, as you would expect in the National Championships, in fact it was one of the Circuits best players in Alex Masek who Harwood beat in heads up play to take the win. Big names that were also gunning for the bracelet were Daniel Negreanu who finished in 6th place, Dominik Nitsche in 15th place and Phil Hellmuth, Jeff Madsen and Scott Clements who missed out on the money seats.

Harwood is also the owner of two Circuit Rings with the next event taking place at Foxwoods Resort Connecticut before moving on to Horseshoe Baltimore in Maryland. Once done in Maryland we'll see the Circuit move overseas for the first time with a stop at the Casino De Campione in Campione Italy and it'll be interesting to see if any of the US players make the trip...if only to take in a nice Italian holiday and a little poker at the same time.