The now two-time bracelet winner held a resounding chip lead coming in to the final table and held off all challengers despite losing the chip lead briefly late in the day.
The last person Harwood had to knock off was 8-time WSOP Circuit Ring winner Alex Masek who stormed all the way back from just 10 big blinds to start the day to finish second.
When Masek knocked off Darryll Fish in third he even entered head-up with a slight edge over Harwood but couldn't get over the final hurdle to the Championship.
Instead Harwood took the lead back in just five hands and went on to victory, pocketing $341,599. Masek collected $211,599 for second.
Negreanu Bounced Early; Broadcast Coming Aug. 18th
The spotlight was certainly shining on Daniel Negreanu when the day started with a third-place chip stack and tons of momentum from his 11th-place finish in the 2015 WSOP Main Event.
Negreanu lost most of his stack before the first break, though, and hit the rail in sixth, well before his legions of fans had hoped. He took home $63,647.
This year was the fifth edition of the WSOP National Championship which is a unique, invitation-only tournament.
100 players earn free entries through being either a Circuit Main Event winner, a Casino Champion or in the top of the season-long points leaderboard.
The Top 100 WSOP player-of-the-year point earners from the past two years are also invited to buy-in for $10,000. This year 122 players were officially entered to make for a prize pool of $1,220,000.
Today's final table was also filmed by ESPN and will air on August 18th. The full list of payouts:
1 – Loni Harwood - $341,599
2 – Alex Masek - $211,599
3 – Darryll Fish - $152,402
4 – Brad St. Vincent - $111,984
5 – Vincent Moscati - $83,716
6 – Daniel Negreanu - $63,647
7 – Paul Mattioda - $49,203
8 – Seth Berger - $38,650
9 – Jonathan Abla - $30,854
10 – Robert Hankins - $25,010
11 – Gevork Kasabyan - $25,010
12 – Brian McDaniel - $25,010
13 – Ari Engel - $20,594
14 – Michael Sanders - $20,594
15 – Dominik Nitsche - $20,594
Check the WSOP Live Updates for a rundown of the day's action. The 2015/16 WOP Circuit starts next week at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut.
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