Horseshoe Hammond in Hammond, Indiana is currently playing host to an eleven-day poker tournament part of the 2015/16 WSOP Circuit schedule. A total of 12 gold ring events are scheduled to take place and five of those have already been completed.
A few hours ago, James Juvancic from Westchester, Illinois topped the field of Event #5: $580 H.O.R.S.E. to collect his first WSOP Circuit gold ring and the amount of $15,149. The player, who recently started playing professionally, emerged victorious over quite a stacked nine-handed final table that featured five former gold ring winners, with three of them being multiple-time winners.
The two-day $580 H.O.R.S.E. attracted a field of 101 entries and a prize pool of $50,500 was generated. The top 12 places were paid, with payouts starting from $1,055. Day 2, the event’s final one, saw 16 players returning to determine the nine finalists for the official final table. Juvancic started the day as the chip leader. However, the player lost his lead and was even among the short stacks at some point.
The official final table was reached with Sachin Bhargava, one of the few participants without gold rings in their records, as the chip leader. He had a total of 249,000 at the beginning. The eventual champion was seventh in chips with 57,500.
After a few hours of play, the heads-up match was set. Juvancic had to face three-time gold ring winner Joshua Reichard from Beloit, Wisconsin. Play started with the soon-to-be-champion holding 914,000 in chips against his opponent’s 298,000. Despite being much more experienced, Reichard eventually had to settle for the 2nd place in the tournament and the amount of $9,364.
As for Juvancic, he received $15,149, a gold ring, and a seat into the $1650 Main Event. This was not the first time that the player won an event at Horseshoe Hammond. Earlier this year, he topped the field of the 2015 Chicago Poker Classic $600 No-Limit Hold’em Deepstack Mix-Max.
Here are the rest of the finalists in the $580 H.O.R.S.E. event and their respective payouts:
Sachin Bhargava from Chicago, Illinois finished 3rd for $6,667. Two-time gold ring winner Joshua Turner from Saint Louis, Missouri took 4th place to collect $4,843. Hussain Sajwani from Chicago, Illinois, yet another two-time gold ring winner, received $3,588 for his 5th place in the event.
One-time gold ring winner Wendy Freedman from Las Vegas, Nevada finished 6th for a payout of $2,708. Michael Sanders from Russellville, Arkansas took 7th place for $2,083. He, too, has previously won one gold ring. Nicholas Podkowirow from Crystal Lake, Illinois was paid $1,632 for finishing 8th. Rounding out the final table, Peter Fricano from Arlington Heights, Illinois took 9th place to scoop $1,301 of the prize pool.
