Lonny Weitzel closed out a victory in the $1,000 Super Seniors event with a lucky final flop at the World Series of Poker on Friday to claim his first bracelet and the $356K top prize.
The champ entered the final day as chip leader and beat Canada's Damir Stefanic in heads-up play. Stefanic settled for $237K and a near-miss on a maiden bracelet of his own.
Lonny was joined in victory by his wife, Bonnie, and her friends on a boisterous early-afternoon rail in the Horseshoe Event Center. They're from Texarkana, Texas and they've been playing since 2012.
Bonnie was front and center for the winner's photo. "She's amazing," Lonny told us. "She is a player in her own right. She was Women's Poker Association Player of Day on Tuesday. She's won WSOP rings. She's won a pendant. She's won numerous awards. And so I appreciate her energy and she helps bounce things off me."
"It was just amazing and great," Bonnie told us. "He came in as the chip leader, so we kind of looked at the field and we knew that he had more experience than most of them there. So we were real excited about that. And we just told him, you know, pick good spots and try to get there. Of course we got lucky there at the end, but we'll take it."
Never a doubt
It was a lucky ending, indeed, with the final two relatively close in chips. Weitzel limped in and Stefanic raised. The champ shoved and a snap-call turned the cards up. Stefanic dominated with 
over Weitzel's 
, but the board ran out 
with an eight on the flop to send the rail into a frenzy. A final tabulation of the chips confirmed the victory.
Damir Stefanic couldn't hold with queens in the pivotal final hand. Bonnie hopped over the rail and grabbed the bracelet in celebration, leaving Lonny to shake hands with the runner-up after a tough battle.
"When you've been battling it out all day and you've been going heads up like this back and forth, and he's bluffed me three or four times that I know of, I just felt it was a good spot. And of course, no one wants to look at a dominated hand. But then just the relief when you look up and you realize you just won the tournament."
The bracelet checks off a bucket list item and a personal goal for Weitzel, who admits he doesn't play as much as he used to.
"I don't like playing the game that much. I enjoy the energy and the camaraderie and I enjoy the competition but I'm busy with businesses and kids and with everything else and activities beyond poker and so I don't get to play much."
Meanwhile, Bonnie is still getting after it on the felt — and she has already planned the celebration.
"I think we're taking all my girlfriends out to eat because they really came and showed up for the rail today."
Poker's new power couple: Lonny and Bonnie$1,000 Super Seniors final table results
| Place | Player | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lonny Weitzel | $356,494 |
| 2 | Damir Stefanic | $237,521 |
| 3 | Richard Jutte | $177,222 |
| 4 | Martin Kohler | $133,228 |
| 5 | Lawrence Whyte | $100,915 |
| 6 | Richard Frandsen | $77,025 |
| 7 | Wesley Cameron | $59,243 |
| 8 | Edwin Huston | $45,920 |
| 9 | Zaher Sayegh | $35,872 |
