Entering the final table of the recently completed World Poker Tour (WPT) Championship, PocketFiver Christian charder Harder held the second largest stack at 7.4 million. Still, the Maryland native trailed chip leader Yevgeniy atimos Timoshenko by six million. At the age of 21, Harder already had two European Poker Tour (EPT) final tables under his belt worth a combined $326,000. Over the weekend, he added a fourth place showing in the WPT Championship for another $571,000. PocketFives.com caught up with Harder just a few days removed from his televised final table appearance that marked the end of Season VII of the WPT.
Twenty-five hands into final table play at the WPT Championship, Timoshenko (pictured at left) took down a four million chip pot against Harder for nearly 30% of his stack. In it, Timoshenko raised to 480,000 pre-flop and Harder made the call. The flop came A-10-4 with two spades. Timoshenko once again led out, this time for 360,000, and Harder called. The turn was the seven of diamonds and both players checked. The jack of clubs fell on the river and Timoshenko bet 1.2 million. Harder called, flipping over A-J for top two pair. Timoshenko, however, showed pocket jacks for a rivered set. Harder admitted, “I couldn’t do much versus Timoshenko. I was super card dead and probably missed a spot or two to shove over him, but I was getting total garbage.”Harder finished seventh in the 2008 PokerStars Caribbean Adventure for $200,000 and, one month later, took eighth in the EPT German Open for another $126,000. He’s the 67th player in the PocketFives.com Online Poker Rankings and finished 11th in the PokerStars World Championship of Online Poker (WCOOP) Main Event last September for $87,000. In January, he finished as the runner up in the site’s Sunday 500 for $71,000. However, he considers the WPT Championship final table to be his greatest poker accomplishment to date. He told PocketFives.com, “Just making the WPT Championship final table is a huge accomplishment. I’m proud and happy with how I played, for the most part.”
Timoshenko rolled through the final table, encountering very little resistance along the way. He was armed with a big stack, but also switched gears well. Harder critiqued the eventual champion’s game: “He’s very aggressive, but he’s very good at adapting and playing tight when he needs to. For example, when we were nine-handed, he was playing tighter and I was raising a lot because he knew that, with me on his left when were both deep-stacked, he couldn’t open every hand. He’s super hard to play against.” Timoshenko pocketed $2.1 million for the win and became the second youngest WPT event champion at 21 years, two months, and 15 days. Nick TheTakeover Schulman (pictured at right) won the Foxwoods World Poker Finals in 2005 when he was exactly 21 years and two months.The tournament will air as the finale of the seventh season of the WPT on Fox Sports Net. On playing under hot lights and in front of a bevy of television cameras filming his every move, Harder recalled, “It’s very different than any other final table I have ever made. The EPT tournaments are televised also, but are nothing like the production of WPT events.” Harder plans to parlay his newfound riches into a brand new car, although its make and model are still up in the air. On Saturday, he notched the six-figure score at the Bellagio; Harder took second in the Sunday 500 the next day for $63,000.
Rooting on the young poker prodigy at the final table at the Bellagio was Harder’s mother, who was making her first tournament appearance. Also on hand were many of his close friends. He recalled, “It was really cool to have all of their support.” You will soon be able to find Harder playing in his very first World Series of Poker (WSOP), which kicks off in four weeks from the Rio. He plans to enter a bevy of No Limit Hold’em tournaments and potentially even the $40,000 buy-in event commemorating the 40th running of the WSOP. That tournament kicks off on May 28th and runs for four days. The WSOP Main Event begins on July 3rd with the first of four starting days. It will once again see its final table delayed until November.
Congratulations to Christian charder Harder for making the WPT Championship final table. We’ll see you at the WSOP. Relive all of the action from the WPT Championship at PocketFivesLive.com.
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