Jim Gardner Wins The Last Monthly Of Season 34! Now We Are Onto The Finals!

Central Mass player Jim Gardner wins the February $10,000 Monthly event capping off the Season 34 Monthlies!

On a sunny, windy day here at Walpole, one hundred seventy-five players came out for one last shot in a Monthly on getting a “Wild Card” seat for the Season Finals.

Jim came to this Final Table second in chips behind Ronnie Smith. Jim started the fireworks on the third hand of the Final Table when his pocket queens were better than Juan’s Ace/King and Charlie’s Ace/eight knocking them both out quickly.

After that, it was Jim’s show to conduct. He was allowing the other players to get eliminated until it was three-handed…then it was time to step up his game.

Then Ronnie was knocked out by Jim when Jim’s K♣ 10♥ was better than Ronnie’s Q♦ J♦. With a board of K♠ 10♦ 5♥ 4♣ 3♠, Ronnie had outs but none were to come.

Then we became heads-up with Mike Rushton. Solid play by both and then a hand that turned the tide for Jim.

Jim was behind on the flop with a lower two pair then Rushton. As you can see from the photo, a 10♣ came on the river to give him a full house and put Mike’s chip stack on life support.

Within three hands of that happening, the final hand occurred:

Mike was all-in with K♦ 10♦ vs Jim’s K♠ Q♦. The board ran clean and Jim was declared the winner!

Jim has already “Double Qualified” for the Season 34 Finals. Sorry Jim, no triple stack!

We had a few new people to a Monthly Final Table: Charlie Arbely (10th), Juan Salazar (9th), Nikiyah Antionie (5th),

This concludes the Monthly portion of Season 34, but we are done yet! The Season 34 $34,000 Finals are coming up in less than a month. For more info, please visit,  http://easternpokeropen.com for the details.

On behalf of Glenn, Gretel, Craig and the rest of the tournament staff, thank you for coming out today and hope to see you at the first Monthly of Season 35 on Saturday April 12 right here at the Walpole VFW.