Prior to 2012 Jonathan Taylor’s poker resume boasted a handful of small cashes and no major victories. He was a college graduate with a full-time job living a normal life, but it wasn’t long before the 9-to-5 grind wore on Taylor. Eventually, he broke free from the chains of the professional world and pursued his passion — poker.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars later, it’s clear he made the right choice.
Taylor perfected his game on the WSOP Circuit and from August of 2012 on he amassed an impressive three victories including donning Casino Champion honors at Horseshoe Southern Indiana and a breakthrough win in The Lodge Casino Main Event for $138,938.
Fast forward to June 2013.
This summer marks Taylor’s first time to a play a full schedule of events at the World Series of Poker, and, just like the Circuit, he started out hot.
Taylor won Event 14 Saturday night, adding $454,424 to his bankroll and a gold bracelet to his three Circuit rings. Some of the Circuit’s best and brightest were on hand to congratulate their fellow grinder on his victory. If past performance is any indication of the future, don’t be surprised if he adds another bracelet or two between now and August.
This $1,500 No Limit Hold’em event drew 1,819 players and generated a prize pool of $2,455,600. The top 198 players finished in the money, earning at least $2,774. Some of the notables who collected a payday were Dan Kelly (180th), Steve Zolotow (136th), Athanasios Polychronopoulos (112th), Nick Schulman (77th), Frank Kassela (49th), last year’s winner in this event, Brent Hanks (47th), Paul Wasicka (37th), and Erick Lindgren (19th). Chris Hunichen made a good run at a second 2013 WSOP final table, but came up short in 13th place.
The final table featured no bracelet winners, but did include several notables like noted infomercial star Tommy Vu (5th), Hiren Patel (4th), and Hunter Frey, who was making his third career WSOP final table appearance.
Here are the final table results for the $1,500 No Limit Hold’em Event 14:
1st: Jonathan Taylor – $454,424
2nd: Blake Bohn – $281,049
3rd: Hunter Frey – $194,315
4th: Hiren Patel – $140,143
5th: Tommy Vu – $102,449
6th: Patrick Kubat – $75,879
7th: Jed Hoffman – $56,946
8th: Dan Gannon – $43,293
9th: Joseph Pergola – $33,323
