Clayton Jiang, a 21-year-old student from Boston, Massachusetts, had his lucky night as he has just topped the field of the 2015/16 WSOP Circuit Harrah’s Cherokee Event #8: $580 No-Limit Hold’em to collect his second gold ring and the first-place prize of $37,486.
What is interesting about Jiang is that he has taken part in only two WSOP Circuit events so far and he has won both of them. The young player captured his first-ever Circuit gold piece in October, when he emerged victorious in the WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Southern Indiana Event #4: $365 No-Limit Hold’em. He bested a field of 105 entries. Last night, Jiang defeated a much larger field of an event with a bigger buy-in to collect his career second gold ring.
Commenting on his plans after his victory last night, the player said that he would move to Las Vegas after his graduation. Jiang is determined to play poker full time until the end of the 2016 WSOP.
The two-day $580 No-Limit Hold’em with a guaranteed prize pool of $100,000 attracted as many as 319 players. The entire prize pool totaled $159,500 and the top 33 finishers were paid a portion of the money. Payouts started from $952.
Day 2 of the event started with 13 players returning to play down to an official nine-handed final table and a champion. The final table was reached quite quickly and started with Todd Blackburn as the chip leader with a total of 742,000 in chips. Jiang was fourth in chips at the start of nine-handed action.
The young player had to face Tripp Kirk from Atlanta, Georgia heads-up. The latter has previously won two gold rings and was indisputably one of the most experienced players at the final table. Two-handed play started with Kirk holding three times more chips than Jiang.
Despite his tough opponent, Jiang was calm and consistent in his actions and this helped him win the event and grab the gold ring and the first-place prize. As for Kirk, he received $23,175 for his efforts.
Sean Webb from Mooresville, North Carolina finished 3rd in the event for $16,832. Todd Blackburn from Canton, Georgia took home $12,433 for finishing 4th. Chad Trentacosta from Atlanta, Georgia took 5th place for a payout of $9,334. One-time gold ring winner John Jones from Spotsylvania, Virginia received $7,118 for his 6th place.
Christopher Land from Alpharetta, Georgia finished 7th for $5,514. Carl Mcgowan from Pearson, Georgia took 8th place for $4,335. Christopher Edwards from Lawrenceville, Georgia scooped $3,460 for finishing 9th in the event.
