The WSOP Circuit is now at Horseshoe Southern Indiana Hotel and Casino where a twelve-day poker tournament part of Season 2015/16 of the Series is to take place. Event #1 has already been completed with Joseph Mattingly from Springfield, Kentucky topping its field to collect the amount of $13,527 and his first-ever WSOP Circuit gold ring.
The two-day $365 No-Limit Hold’em event attracted a field of 167 entries and a prize pool of $50,100 was created. The top 18 finishers received their share of the money, with payouts starting from $672.
Day 1 of the event continued up until the nine-handed final table was set. This happened early in Level 19. Day 2 saw the remaining nine players returning to determine the winner. Play started with Charles Dawson as the chip leader holding 340,000 in chips. The event’s winner started the day sixth in chips. He remained in the middle of chip counts for the greater part of the final table. Once better cards started coming his way, the player managed to take full advantage of the situation and to eventually capture the piece of WSOP jewelry.
Mattingly faced James Hill from Louisville, Kentucky heads-up. Although the match started with the latter holding two times more chips than his opponent, the winner managed to quickly catch up and eventually emerge victorious in the event. Play lasted about half an hour until at a certain point Mattingly flopped a king high flush and made his opponent shove all in on the turn. The river was of no help to Hill and he had to content himself with the runner-up finish and the amount of $8,360.
This was Mattingly’s first victory in a WSOP-related event and his 11th cash in the Series. Earlier this year, he played at the WSOP Seniors event, where he finished 47th for a payout of $9,773. Commenting on his triumph, the 59-year-old grain farmer said that he was really happy to finally win a WSOP Circuit gold ring and that he would now go for a WSOP gold bracelet.
And here are the rest of the final table players and their respective payouts:
Mink Meixell from Jeffersonville, Indiana took 3rd place to collect $6,018. Day 1 chip leader Charlie Dawson from Owensboro, Kentucky finished 4th for $4,410. Thomas Knepp from Copley, Ohio received $3,290 for his 5th place in the event.
Charles Martin from Clarksville, Indiana took 6th place to scoop $2,496 of the prize pool. William Horsman from Louisville, Kentucky finished 7th for $1,926. Ketan Mehta, yet another Louisville resident, collected $1,512 for finishing 8th in the event. Rounding out the final table, Andrej Petryna from Kent, Ohio took 9th place for $1,205.
