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

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.}