Jonathan Jaffe finished runner-up in the 2008 WPT World Poker Finals in Mashantucket, and was determined not to finish in second place again. He came into the final table as the chip leader, and although he saw his stack swing throughout the night, he inevitably found himself with all of the chips in play.
Heads-up play with opponent Ratharam Sivagnanam last quite a while, and both players held the lead at multiple occasions. Following a big pot won by Jonathan that left Ratharam with less than a quarter of the chips in play, Jonathan began applying pressure on the short stack. Ratharam responded to his aggressive opponent by limp-shoving a marginal hand, only to run into a monster.
After making the call, Jonathan tabled 
, and needed to hold versus Ratharam’s 
to become the champion. The board ran out 
and with that, Jonathan won the tournament, the Hublot watch, the Monster headphones, an entry to the WPT World Championship, a place on the WPT Trophy, a Playground Poker Fall Classic Main Event Belt, a whopping $446,800 in cash, and, last but not least, bragging rights!
Ratharam’s second-place finish earned him a prize of $313,318.
Congratulations!
You can find all of the photos from the final table by following this link or by visiting our Playground Poker Flickr page.
