Maurice Hawkins, a poker professional from West Palm Beach, Florida, has just added another gold ring to his more than impressive collection of WSOP Circuit gold pieces, after besting the field of the $365 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. The player won his fifth career gold ring and a first-place prize of $19,477.
Minutes after his victory, the player told interviewers that he was really happy to win a tournament as he had not done this for a while. Hawkins also revealed that he intends to enter as many events during this year’s edition of the WSOP as possible.
Turning back to Horseshoe Council Bluffs and the $365 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em, the event was a two-day one and was completed mere hours ago. It kicked off on April 6 to draw as many as 265 entries. They created a prize pool of $79,500. The top 27 players were paid a portion of the money. Lowest payouts were worth $642.
Day 1 of the tournament was completed on Wednesday with 27 survivors. They returned on the next day to set the nine-handed final table. The whole event lasted a total of 28 levels of play. Eventually, Hawkins had to face JP Kolb from Youngsville, Louisiana for a final heads-up match, which started with Hawkins as the chip leader, holding a significant advantage over his opponent.
Two-handed action did not take much. On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Kolb shoved all in, with the board showing [8c][7c][5c][6d]. Kolb turned up [5s][4h] for a straight. However, Hawkins had the high end of the straight, tabling [9c][5d]. The river came [Js] and was of no help to both players. Thus, Maurice won his fifth WSOP Circuit title and Kolb received the amount of $12,035 for his runner-up finish.
Charles Hanson from Sioux Falls, South Dakota took 3rd place for a payout of $8,695. John Haldie from Offutt Afb, Nebraska finished 4th for $6,399. Paul Cannova from Raymore, Missouri collected $4,794 for taking 5th place in the tournament. Matthew Irwin from Elkhorn, Nebraska finished 6th for $3,653.
Craig Flyger from Parker, South Dakota scooped $2,830 of the entire prize pool for taking 7th place. John Ross from Omaha, Nebraska finished 8th for a payout of $2,228. David Gutfreund from Chicago, Illinois took 9th place to collect $1,782.
