Marco Johnson finally cracks 3rd WSOP bracelet, 22 final tables later

Event #49: $2,500 Freezeout

June 16-18

ENTRIES ($2500) IN THE MONEY

1,561

235

PRIZE POOL $3,473,225

2ND PRIZE $342.0K

FIRST PRIZE $513.9K

22

WSOP final tables for Marco Johnson since his last bracelet on June 12, 2016. 

1st

VS

2nd

1st

Marco Johnson

Prize

$513,885

Career Earnings: $6,776,787

PRIZE

2nd

Chino Rheem

Prize

$341,970

Career Earnings: $20,176,401

PRIZE

1st

Marco Johnson

2nd

Chino Rheem

Final Hand

Prize

$513,885

Career Earnings: $6,776,787

PRIZE

Prize

$341,970

Career Earnings: $20,176,401

PRIZE

RESULTS

1. 1ST Marco Johnson $513,885
2. 2ND Chino Rheem $341,970
3. 3RD Kenzo Ishida $246,800
4. 4TH Faraz Jaka $180,210
5. 5TH Srivinay Irrinki $133,170
6. 6TH Vamerdino Magsakay $99,590
7. 7TH Elliot Smith $75,390
8. 8TH Pyeongkang Kim $57,780
9. 9TH Sebastian Schulze $44,840

Final Hand

EXPAND GRAPHIC

"Relief."

It's the perfect word association for your first bracelet after a ten year wait. Especially for an emotional Marco Johnson, who should not have been forced to wait that long. 

"I've had a lot of final tables without winning a bracelet in the last five years," Johnson said after the $2,500 Freezeout on Thursday night. "It felt really good to finally win one."

You can go back further than five years to chart Johnson's near misses. In fact, he's been to 22 final tables since he won the $3,000 HORSE event at the 47th WSOP on June 12, 2016. 

Johnson has been a regular feature at final tables in the last ten years.

Omar Sader

Marco Johnson's final table placements since bracelet #2 (22 total) 

• 2nd - 2 
• 3rd - 4 
• 5th - 4
• 6th - 7
• 7th - 1
• 8th - 4

The last mile

Johnson is mostly known as a mixed-games specialist, so it's notable that his third WSOP bracelet comes in no-limit hold'em. And none of it was easy, especially at a final table with Faraz Jaka and Chino Rheem. 

"It's been a long day battling," Johnson said. An understatement in a long, difficult freezeout tournament where you only get one chance. 

But Johnson loves the format, even if we are seeing a lot less of it these days. "I had this tournament actually circled on my schedule."

Johnson can only play so many no-limit tournaments with a mixed-game oriented schedule, and he prefers the permadeath version. This week, he fought through a field of 1,561 players to get to one of the last 28 seats on the tournament's final day. 

Johnson had block Chino Rheem's first bracelet to score #3.

Hayley Hochstetler

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Battling Chino

Johnson remained steady on the final day and he sat down at the last table in the second spot on the leaderboard. Jaka eventually bowed out in fourth, but the champ would have to go through Rheem at the end.

"Chino played an amazing tournament."

Johnson has known Rheem for 20 years, and they've both come a long way.

"We're different versions of ourselves in poker than we were 20 years ago.  We were both probably little more maniacal."

Maniacal is probably a loaded word for two crushers who cut their teeth in the wild west days of the mid-2000s. Their heads-up battle, however, was definitely the calmer side of two former maniacs. Rheem doubled himself into contention, but Johnson's momentum was untamed. 

The final two have been battling for more than 20 years.

"I'm super thankful to run good enough to beat him heads up. And it felt extra special to beat him because he's such a good player.  At the PokerGO studio, he has all these wins without taking second a lot, so he's a very good closer."

Johnson is right. Rheem has won 10 times at the PokerGO Studio, while he's finished as runner-up only three times. 

"It felt good to close against him."

For Rheem, it was another close call of his own, and his poker life continues without a first WSOP bracelet. This was his fifth time playing runner-up, and he has reached 31 final tables since his first cash in the 2005 Main Event.

^{Image courtesy of World Series of Poker.}