The 2015/16 WSOP Circuit stop at Palm Beach Kennel Club in Florida has come to an end with the completion of the $1,675 Main Event. Mukul Pahuja, a professional poker player from Coconut Creek, Florida, emerged victorious in the event to collect the first-place prize of $193,095 and his third career gold ring. The player also won a seat into the Global Casino Championship.
As already mentioned, Pahuja has previously won two Circuit gold pieces. And it is interesting to note that he has received one of those for topping the field of another Main Event on the WSOP Circuit schedule. This happened in the 2014/15 season of the popular poker series. In December 2014, the player triumphed in the Harrah’s Atlantic City $1,675 Main Event for the gold ring and a payout of $148,345. Pahuja received his first-ever gold piece for winning the Harrah’s Atlantic City $2,150 No-Limit Hold’em Deep Stack back in December 2009.
Including last night’s victory, the player’s Circuit winnings now amount to more than $500,000. In addition, he has cashed in a total of 15 WSOP events, scooping more than $190,000 in those.
The 2015/16 WSOP Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club $1,675 Main Event kicked off on February 12 and featured two starting flights and two more days of play. The tournament attracted a field of 613 entries who created a prize pool of $919,500. The top 63 finishers were paid, with lowest payouts worth $3,007.
Nine players returned yesterday for the event’s final day to play down to an eventual champion. Cards were thrown in the air at noon at Palm Beach Kennel Club. Nine-handed action stated with Joshua Lowing as he chip leader. The player had a total of 2,900,000 in chips, worth 120 big blinds. Pahuja was somewhere in the middle of the pack with 1,256,000 or 52 big blinds. The final table featured 5 former gold ring winners and several players who were quite experienced in cash games.
Commenting on that latter group of entries, Pahuja said after his victory that they were quite tricky to play against as they “provided different challenges” that he was not used to.
It took seven levels of play before the name of the champion was announced. Eventually, Pahuja had to face Adam Levy from Coral Springs, Florida heads-up. Although he has not won any WSOP gold pieces, Levy is no stranger to both the WSOP and the WSOP Circuit scenes. The player has a little less than $1 million in WSOP winnings. Prior to last night, he also had almost $30,000 in WSOP Circuit earnings.
The heads-up match did not last long. Almost 20 minutes after the two opponents started their duel, Pahuja opened on the button and Levy moved all his chips in. His opponent called to see Levy tabling [Ah][6s]. As for Pahuja himself, he turned [10c][10h]. The board ran out [8s][3s][3s][8h][3h], securing Pahuja with the best hand and the title. Levy collected $119,434 for his runner-up finish.
Eric Bunch from Skiatook, Oklahoma finished 3rd in the tournament to scoop $87,334. One-time gold ring winner Dalton Mills from Jacksonville, Florida took 4th place for a payout of $64,806. Joshua Lowing from Pensacola, Florida received $48,761 for finishing 5th in the event.
Staffan Lind from Vero Beach, Florida, yet another former gold ring winner at the final table, took 6th place for $37,194. Tristan Wade from Boynton Beach, Florida, also holder of one Circuit gold piece, finished 7th for $28,762.
One-time gold ring winner Daniel Weinman from Atlanta, Georgia collected $22,546 for his 8th place in the tournament. Juan Mendoza from Wilmington, North Carolina rounded out the final table to take home the amount of $17,912. Mendoza, too, has previously won a gold ring.
