Joseph Rodriguez from Hampton Bays, New York topped the field of the $365 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max or Event #8 on the schedule of the 2015/16 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Atlantic City stop. The player claimed his first career gold ring and the amount of $13,860 in prize money.
Rodriguez has been playing poker full time for the past two years. He told interviewers that a friend of his had introduced him to the game and he had originally thought it had been stupid. Later on, the player realized that there was a lot more to it and eventually started playing professionally.
The two-day $365 No-Limit Hold’em Six-Max drew the attention of as many as 165 players who generated a prize pool of $49,500. The top 18 finishers got a share of the money, with lowest payouts amounting to $614.
The tournament did not start well for Rodriguez. He almost hit the rail early on Day 1, reducing his chips to just 4,500. During the second half of the day, the player managed to accumulate a considerable stack and was eventually one of the six finalists who would return for Day 2 to play down to a champion.
The six-handed final table started with Rex Clinkscales as the chip leader with a total of 376,000. Rodriguez was second in chips at that point with 362,000. It took about an hour of play for four of the six finalists to be eliminated. Rodriguez and one-time gold ring winner DJ MacKinnon from East Amherst, New York were the last players at the final table.
Two-handed match started with MacKinnon holding almost four times more chips than his opponent. Rodriguez said after the tournament that he thought he had no chance against a player like MacKinnon. The two players played for more than five hours before one of them was busted. On what turned out to be the last hand in play, MacKinnon’s pocket tens could not hold up against Rodriguez’ Ace-King and the player, although more experienced than his opponent, had to settle for the runner-up finish in Event #8. MacKinnon took home the amount of $8,568.
Sundiata Devore from Brooklyn, New York finished 3rd for $6,151. Start-of-the-day chip leader Rex Clinkscales from Las Vegas, Nevada took 4th place, good for $4,422. Sean Kline from Abingdon, Maryland was paid $3,178 for his 5th place in the tournament. Alexander Andujar from North Bergen, New Jersey finished 6th for a payout of $2,285.
