Anthony Spinella was the final player to win a WSOP Circuit gold ring this year. While he already knew what it felt like to win a gold ring or a gold bracelet from the Circuit’s big brother, the annual WSOP festival, he never knew what it felt like to claim a WSOP Circuit title from a live tournament.
Spinella was the last man standing in the 665-person WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Las Vegas $1,700 Main Event that was completed Sunday night at the host venue.
As mentioned above, he captured his third-ever piece of WSOP/WSOPC hardware, but the first one in a tournament that took place at a brick-and-mortar casino. The player’s two previous titles came from online tournaments.
Aside from the piece of gold, Spinella also received a $192,199 payday and secured a seat into the 2020 Global Casino Championship as the winner of the WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Las Vegas Main Event.
The tournament kicked off on December 19 with the first of two starting flights. The two opening days drew as many as 665 entries. By the start of Day 2 of the tournament, there were just 143 of them left to fight for the title.
The event’s field generated a prize pool of $1,007,475, but there were payouts only for the top 100 finishers, min-cash set at $2,555.
Final Day of Action
Spinella was among the 13 finalists who made it into the final day of the tournament. Action unfolded quickly at the start of Day 3, but as players began dropping from the race for the title and the piece of WSOP Circuit paraphernalia, things slowed down.
It took hours before the field was whittled down to the final four, and it then took two full levels before another player got busted. Down to three players, it again took a while before the names of the two heads-up opponents became known.
Spinella faced Nipun Java heads-up. The duel began with Spinella holding 16 million in chips to Java’s only 3.5 million. It should be noted that both finalists were former bracelet and ring winners. And as it could be expected from champions, their battle was a true spectacle.
After a while, two hands were all Spinella needed to put an end to the tournament. On what turned out to be the final hand in play, Java moved all in on the button for around 3 million and his opponent called. Java had [Qs][Js] and Spinella turned over [Ac][9d]. The board delivered [5d][Kd][7h][4c][6d] to send Java to the rails. The player collected a consolation prize of $118,764 for his runner-up finish.
Of his win, Spinella said that he was very excited and that it came at a perfect time right before the holidays. The player also revealed that he would spend part of his prize on a new dinosaur for his son.
Commenting on whether he preferred playing online over live tournaments, Spinella said that both have their appeal and that while it was nice to be able to play at home and “be in the same vicinity as my son”, it was also nice to get out and play live.
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on the day’s top casino news stories
