The 2016/17 WSOP Circuit Palm Beach Kennel Club is nearing completion with only four days left to be played. Nine gold rings have already found their new owners and David Katz became one of the latest such owners after taking down the $365 Monster Stack No-Limit Hold’em tournament.
This was a first WSOP Circuit victory for the player who has recently moved from New Jersey to South Florida. What is more, this was his best poker accomplishment. Apart from the gold jewelry piece, Katz also received a check of $26,466 in prize money.
There were 401 entries in the event at the time registration was closed. The prize pool amounted to $120,300 and payouts were promised to the top 45 finishers. The initial field was reduced to just 23 hopefuls during Day 1 of play. Katz bagged up the twelfth biggest stack at the end of the day. During the tournament’s second day, the player stayed mainly somewhere in the middle of the chip counts chart.
Eventually, Katz happened to be the only remaining tournament entry at the table aside from David Gutfreund. The heads-up match began with the latter holding almost two times more chips. Despite the chip deficit, Katz was determined to give his final opponent some hard time. And he did give Gutfreund hard time, and managed to eventually scoop the title, the gold ring, and the first-place prize. On the other hand, his heads-up opponent received $16,355 to console himself with.
Judging by his WSOP Circuit cash history, it can be said that Katz has relatively little experience in such events. Prior to his victory, the player had only two WSOP Circuit cashes of $1,850 and $1,205. Formerly a New Jersey resident, the player had scooped these both at Atlantic City casinos. As it seems, his recent relocation to Florida has brought him luck.
There are three more gold rings up for grabs at Palm Beach Kennel Club. The festival is set to be concluded on Monday, February 20 when the name of the Main Event winner will become known. The $1,675 headline tournament is slated to begin today with the first of two starting flights.
