Three-time WSOP gold bracelet winner and 2012 WSOP The BIG ONE for ONE DROP champion Antonio Esfandiari won last night his first-ever WSOP Circuit gold ring. The popular poker pro topped the field of the 2015/16 WSOP Circuit The Bicycle Casino $1,675 Main Event for the gold piece and the amount of $226,785. Including last night’s victory, the player’s WSOP-related winnings now amount to more than $21.5 million.
Esfandiari emerged victorious over a field of 756 entries. Those generated a prize pool of $1,134,000. The top 81 players received a share of the money, with lowest payouts worth $2,825. The $1,675 Main Event was a four-day tournament with two starting flights and two more days of play. As many as 12 players returned for the event’s final day. They had to set the official final table and to play down to a winner. Jamie Gold started the day as the chip leader with 2,875,000.
It took about two hours of play for the nine-handed final table to be set. It started with Gold still holding the lead with 3,230,000. Esfandiari was fifth in chips at that point. As the day progressed, he took the lead and kept extending it. At the time when there were only 4 remaining players at the final table, Esfandiari had more than 10 million, with Gold being second with five times less chips.
Eventually, the two players faced each other heads-up. Both Esfandiari and Gold are no strangers to the world of poker. As mentioned above, Esfandiari topped the field of The BIG ONE for ONE DROP event in 2012 to collect a first-place prize of $18,346,673. As for Gold, he won the WSOP $10,000 Main Event in 2006 for a payout of $12,000,000.
Two-handed action started with Esfandiari as the chip leader. The player had 13,975,000 against his opponent’s 1,180,000. It took a little less than an hour of play for Esfandiari to defeat Gold. On what turned out to be the last hand in play, Gold raised to 260,000 on the button and his opponent called. The flop came [As][2c][5c]. Esfandiari checked and Gold bet 300,000. Esfandiari then check-raised to 800,000. At that point, Gold moved all in and his opponent snap-called.
Esfandiari turned over [Ac][2h] against Gold’s [Ah][Kd]. The turn came [2d] and the [8h] appeared on the river. They were of no help to Gold and the player collected $139,820 for his second-place finish.
Barry Woods finished 3rd to scoop $139,820 of the prize pool. Four-time gold ring winner Ray Henson took 4th place, good for $76,830. Alexander Greenbaltt collected $58,025 for his fifth-place finish.
One-time gold bracelet winner Bryn Kenney finished 6th, good for $44,395. Blaise Hom received $34,395 for taking 7th place in the event. Ludovic Geilich took 8th place for $26,980. Jack Duong finished 9th for a payout of $21,420.
