"Hippie" Jon Andlovec Wins Super Seniors to Pay for Daughter's Elaborate Wedding
"Hippie" Jon Andlovec of Carson City, Nevada was just one of 25 hopefuls who returned for Day 3 of the 2015 World Series of Poker Event #43: $1,000 Super Seniors No-Limit Hold'em – a tournament that attracted 1,533 runners and created a prize pool of $1,379,700. Standing between him and the $262,220 first-place prize were two dozens veteran players, including Perry Green and Rod Pardey Jr., who have five bracelets between them.
All three of those players managed to make the final table, but Green was the first to go, exiting in eighth place when his pocket fives failed to hold against two overs. Hours later, when just three players remained on Hand #112, Wallace Havens of Sun Prairie, Wisconsin raised to 200,000 and Andlovec three-bet to 1.6 million. Havens proceeded to shove all in with the 8?8?, and Andlovec called with the A?K?. It was a big flip, and the proverbial coin came down in Andlovec's favor after the board ran out Q?4?3?A?Q?.
That left just Andlovec and the aforementioned Pardey to battle it out in heads-up play. It'd take just six hands for Andlovec to seal the deal when the chips got all in on a 3?10?9? flop. Pardey was drawing very much alive with the A?8? against the 3?7? of Andlovec, but the K? turn and 3? river both blanked. With that, Andlovec denied Pardey a third bracelet.
"I won this for my daughter Jennifer," the 70-year-old Andlovec said after the win. "I wasn't coming to the WSOP, but she sent me $1,000 and said, 'Dad, please go win the Super Seniors so that I can have an elaborate wedding because my 10-year significant other, Shamus, dropped to one knee.' She wants an elaborate wedding, so I came down and my whole goal was to play into third."
Andlovec is no stranger to the WSOP, but it had been awhile since he put up a result. In fact, Andlovec's last WSOP cash came back in 2004 when he finished ninth in Event #17: $1,500 Limit Hold'em Shootout for $6,620. Before that, he placed sixth in the 1991 WSOP Event #5: $2,500 Limit Hold'em for $17,763, and fourth in the 1990 WSOP Event #12: $2,500 Limit Hold'em for $38,100. Aside from that, Andlovec has managed plenty of tournament wins in his career, including four five-figure scores in Reno, meaning his lifetime tournament earnings now stand at $757,094.Prior to playing poker for a living, Andlovec, who is self-described hardcore hippie, worked as a farmer.
"I quit as a farmer when Willie Nelson was singing the song about the broken farmers, I was one of those guys. So I started playing professional poker and filed taxes as a pro. That's why I get social security."
Like many men his age, Andlovec had plenty of poker stories to share.
"I once borrowed $40 in Reno to get to the WSOP," he claimed. "I only had $2 when I got here, and I ended up with a fourth place. They quoted me as saying, 'I don't bring money with me because I can only go up.'"
Andlovec also said he was also there when Chris Moneymaker won the WSOP in 2003: "I was actually there when he was scurrying about trying to sell his buy-in for $8,000, but he didn't know whom to bribe, they forced him to play, and poker changed forever. I could write a book about it."
If Andlovec ever does decide to right a book, he's now got the perfect ending as he now has as many bracelets as Moneymaker.
Super Seniors Final Table Results
Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Jon Andlovec | Carson City, NV | $262,220 |
2 | Rod Pardey Jr. | Las Vegas, NV | $162,100 |
3 | Wallace Havens | Sun Prairie, WI | $106,678 |
4 | Wayne Knyal | Los Angeles, CA | $76,904 |
5 | Thomas Lock | St. Clair, MI | $56,291 |
6 | Mark Estes | Grapevine, TX | $41,804 |
7 | Ted Cohen | Bonita Springs, FL | $31,484 |
8 | Perry Green | Anchorage, AK | $24,034 |
9 | Mark Schwartz | Buffalo Grove, IL | $18,584 |
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