The WSOP International Circuit set foot in St. Maarten on November 3 for its first-ever Caribbean poker festival. Hosted by Sonesta Maho Resort & Casino, the event has so far proved to be a terrific success, with six gold rings and thousands of dollars being distributed to the top performing players.
Martin Ryan from Trinidad and Tobago made history on Saturday, becoming the player who won two gold rings in two consecutive days within the WSOP International Circuit Caribbean poker festival. Yesterday, Ryan emerged as the victor of Event #22: $365 No-Limit Hold’em, collecting $10,900 in prize money and a shiny gold ring, as already mentioned. The player won his first WSOP Circuit gold piece the day before for outlasting the field of a $365 Pot-Limit Omaha event.
The $365 No-Limit Hold’em tournament commenced on Friday, November 11, attracting a field of 98 unique players and 23 re-entries. The overall prize pool amounted to $36,290, promising payouts to the top 12 finishers. Day 1 of the event was concluded with 18 hopefuls bagging and tagging. George Griffith left the poker tables at Casino Royale as the chip leader with 254,000 and ahead of Timothy Cavallin with 161,500 and Martin Ryan with 114,000.
Action unfolded rapidly on Day 2 of the tournament and the money bubble was reached soon after cards had been thrown in the air. Michel Pecot became the unfortunate bubble boy or the last player to leave the event empty-handed. And from that point onwards, it did not take long before the eight-handed final table was set. Pace slowed down a bit but then picked up again and the field was quickly whittled down to just two players – Ryan and start-of-the-day chip leader Griffith.
The final hand in play occurred in Level 23. Griffith raised to see his opponent three-bet to 93,000. Griffith then moved all in for his last 400,000 and Ryan called. Griffith tabled [7d][7h] against Ryan’s [Qd][Jc]. The board ran out [Ac][6s][3h][10s][Qc], securing Ryan with the better pair and sending Griffith to the rail in 2nd place for a payout of $6,700.
Ryan posed proudly with his two gold rings, after making history at the inaugural WSOP Circuit Caribbean poker festival.
Ramon Baumbach finished 3rd in the event, good for $4,800. Stevan Prager was out in 4th place for $3,480. Gerald Mortensen scored a fifth-place finish for a payout of $2,580. Jacco van Limpt took $1,950 for his 6th place. Ian Gavlick scooped a $1,500 share of the money for taking 7th place. Peter Lawson rounded out the final table for an eighth-place prize of $1,160.
