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Christian Harder poker player profile. Get latest information, winnings and gallery.

1. Shawn Cunix Gets Christian Harder to Fold the Best Hand Main Tour WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Season 2019-2020 1A 600/300-600 Christian Harder vs. Adedapo Ajayi Main Tour WPT Montreal Season 2019-2020 3 20,000/10,000-20,000 Christian Harder Doubles Thru Samuel Gagnon Main Tour WPT Montreal Season 2019-2020 3 20,000/10,000-20,000 Four-Bet Jam From Kristen Bicknell Main Tour.
2. WPT Career Highlights Value Rank; Career Earnings: $1,410,519: 135: Cashes: 26: 12: Final Tables: 3: 167: Titles: 0: 13,464.

The PokerStars Championship series has its first Main Event winner and it's the name of a 29-year-old from Maryland to be placed beside those of Alexander Stevic and Gus Hansen, the inaugural champions of the EPT and PCA, respectively.

Christian Harder never did manage outright victory in either of those previous tours, despite making a final table in each of them as he amassed millions of dollars in winnings both live and online. But Harder wasted no time in sealing the deal after the tours rebranded as the PokerStars Championship: he dominated from the outset on the final table today, clinching the first prize of $429,664 after a heads-up deal.

Harder beat out a field of 738 players this week, the last six of whom contested the lion's share of the prize-pool this evening at the Atlantis Resort, Paradise Island. Harder's final obstacle was Cliff Josephy, the legend of online poker and recent November Niner. Josephy was coming off the back of a third-placed finish in Las Vegas towards the end of last year, and played a patient game to rise from short stack to second.

The pair had history too. When Harder made the final here in 2008, Josephy was his backer; Harder was just one of many online prodigies who got their leg-up thanks to the man known as JohnnyBax. The snowball that Josephy had helped propel back then was now an unstoppable juggernaut and it rolled over Josephy shortly before 9pm.

'It's pretty amazing, I've come full circle,' Harder said. 'It's totally where it all started. I'd never played a big buy in until the 2008 PCA.'

He added: 'It's amazing. I've been playing for nine years really, never won a major tournament. To finally win one, here, it's awesome.'

Players returned to the Imperial Ballroom at noon guaranteed at least $103,780, but there was a clear line running through start-of-day leader board dividing the stacked from the slacks.

While Gentili (6.175 million), Harder (5.985 million) and Aleksei Opalikhin (4.59 million) could afford to take hits and survive, Cliff Josephy (1.24 million), Rasmus Glæsel (1.56 million) and Michael Vela (1.755 million) would need their hands to hit or hold up if they had designs on the trophy. Alas for Glæsel first, that would not come to pass.

On the first hand, Glæsel flopped a set of nines, but found no callers. Within about another 20 minutes he found A♥K♣ and this time did get action: Harder had pocket tens. The chips went in but the board was dry and Glæsel left us in sixth. Glæsel received hugs from friends and opponents alike, testament to a gregarious table presence for the past five days during which he has kept conversation bubbling along. (Hand history)

Christian Harder Poker Club

Christian Harder Poker

With five left, action was still cautious. They played out more than two and a half levels--that's more than three hours, and more than 100 hands--without either a double-up or an elimination. But arguably this period is precisely where the tournament was won.

A few pots brewed between Gentili and Harder that principally profited the latter. Indeed, everybody ended up taking some from the overnight leader and his stack dwindled below the 1.5 million mark. He was ultimately knocked out by a Opalikhin/Josephy one-two: Opalikhin took all but a couple of Gentili's chips in skirmish with A♥A♠ against 2♥2♣. Then Josephy polished him off with K♠T♠ to Gentili's 9♠7♣. (Hand history)

Despite having the biggest stack at the end of Days 4 and 5, Gentili was out in fifth. He took $140,940, but it's going to be a while before he sees that for the success it so patently is.

With the dam now broken, chips began to move. Although Harder was still sitting pretty with almost half the total chips in play, any of the other three knew it might be them swept away next. So it proved for Opalikhin. Holding K♠Q♠, he faced a three-bet shove from Josephy, holding pocket nines.

A call and a dry board later, and it was Opalikhin left with shrapnel. Vela took the bounty with his pocket kings. (Hand history) Opalikhin, who was the last player from outside North America in the final five, took $191,420 back to St Petersburg, Russia.

Despite scoring the knockout, Vela was the short-stack. But here was a man who has overcome much more serious obstacles than the deficit of a few chips in a poker tournament. He was diagnosed in September 2015 with throat and tongue cancer, which he had licked within 10 months.

'I had a lot more positives than negatives come out it for me,' Vela said of what proved to be a one-sided battle. 'Life is what you make of it. At the end of the day, it was a very positive experience.'

He will doubtless say the same of this event, even if the road ended in third. He had the most vocal supporters in the room, headed by his girlfriend and latterly bolstered by the returning Glæsel. They went through every emotion with him, including the frustration and disappointment of losing to Josephy's rivered flush when he was hoping for a triple up. (Hand history) But the $259,980 he took for third will be very well spent.

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With two experienced campaigners left, and with only a few blinds between them, Harder and Josephy quickly agreed a deal. Harder locked up $419,664 and Josephy $403,445, with $10,000 and the trophy left on the side.

In the past, heads-up battles in the Bahamas have kept everyone up before sunrise, but these two had no desire to stick around. The first time they both found aces, they were prepared to risk all with them, and Harder's A♦J♠ remained better than Josephy's A♠8♥ when they got their stacks in pre-flop. (Hand history)

Harder is a good friend with fellow Maryland native Tony Gregg, who has twice previously finished runner up in the Bahamas. But Harder went one better even than Gregg and gets the PokerStars Championships up and running in exemplary fashion.

Next stop: Panama in March. See you all then.

PokerStars Championship Bahamas Main Event

Dates: January 8-14, 2017
Players: 738
Buy-in: $4,717 + $283
Total prize pool: $3,376,712

*Denotes heads-up deal

Full payouts

James and Joe are joined by Matt Broughton once again, to look back at the first ever PokerStars Championship in the Bahamas. The boys reveal what happened at Atlantis after the final card was dealt (spoiler alert: many of Joe’s stories involve Tinder), and Matt tells the tale of ‘The Hulk, the Bomb and the Corpse’! Christian Harder is this week’s guest, discussing his #PSCBahamas victory and the history of his relationship with runner-up Cliff Josephy. He’s also forced to play one of the stupidest games every created by man. Or Stapes. And #PokerStarsTV viewer Christian Obermaier takes on Joe in a game of ‘Scrubs’ trivia in this week’s ‘Superfan vs Stapes’. #PokerInTheEars

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Comment by jondelano

thx for the distraction from the DC festivities, on this the 20th of Jan. Killer airline stories LMFAO.