Brad Albrinck won last night the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 Main Event, emerging from the short stack into the last man standing in the tournament. Albrinck captured $275,877 and a gold ring, his second-ever WSOP Circuit gold piece. Three years ago, the player topped another Main Event on the popular poker series’ schedule.
He emerged victorious in the 2013/14 WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Cincinnati $1,675 Main Event to collect $221,994. Including last night’s payout, Albrinck’s overall WSOP winnings now amount to almost $800,000. The player has cashed in a total of 27 different WSOP and WSOP Circuit, not a bad score for a person who only plays part-time.
Albrinck was not the favorite for the title last night, which makes his victory really impressive. The player started the tournament’s final day as the short stack. He improved throughout the day but yet it was not him who dominated action at the tables. There was another player to do this – Albrinck’s heads-up opponent – Jason Rivkin.
Rivkin started Day 3 as the chip leader, heading 22 survivors. He was among the players with the largest stacks at the time when the unofficial ten-handed final table was set, and was the chip leader when cards were thrown in the air for the final heads-up duel. The two-handed match kicked off with Rivkin holding five times more chips than his last remaining opponent.
It looked like the player would not need much time to finish off Albrinck. However, as it often happens in poker, things were slightly different in reality. The two opponents battled it out for more than three hours. The course of the game changed in Albrinck’s favor when the player went all in at a certain point. The flop and the turn were of no help to the eventual winner. However, the river won him a large pot and from that moment on he only improved, never looking back.
On the last hand in play, Albrinck shoved all in, putting Rivkin in a dangerous position. The latter called, moving all his chips in the middle of the table, and turning the [Ac][Kc] against his opponent’s [9h][7h]. The board ran out [10d][9d][2d][Kh][9c], securing Albrinck with the final pot and the title. Rivkin took home not a bad payout of $170,639 for his runner-up finish.
Overall, the Harrah’s Cherokee $1,675 Main Event attracted a massive field of 968 entries. A prize pool of $1,452,000 was created, beating the originally announced guaranteed prize pool of $1 million. The tournament was played over four days, starting December 2.
Winning the Main Event, Albrinck has secured a seat into the 2017 Global Casino Championship, the tournament that marks the end of the WSOP Circuit season.
