Recreational player Steven Spunt tops a field of 547 entrants to win the WSOP Circuit Bicycle Casino Main Event
Steven Spunt, a recreational player from Southern California, joined last night the elite club of WSOP Circuit Main Event champions. The player was crowned the victor of the $1,700 Main Event at the Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens, California for his first-ever gold ring from the series.
He also managed to turn his $1,700 buy-in into a hefty first-place prize of $174,055. Spunt has been on a hot streak over the past several weeks. He entered the Main Event at the Bike fresh off a successful run in Las Vegas where he took part in another major series and ran pretty deep in two of the tournaments he bought into.
At the Bike, Spunt entered the final day of action as one of 13 remaining survivors from an original field of 547 tournament entries. Spunt began gaining momentum from the moment cards were thrown in the air for Day 3. He ran so well as the day progressed that he eventually emerged as the chip leader. At some point, the player even got hold of more than a half of all chips in play.
However, the final table was not all roses and sunshine for the eventual winner. He suffered several really bad beats that affected his position on the chip counts chart.
Heads-Up Highlights
Yet, all’s well that ends well. During three-handed play, Spunt had a huge chip advantage over his two remaining opponents until start-of-the-day chip leader Steven Forman doubled through the soon-to-be-champion. Forman then busted to David Lambard to set the heads-up match.
Following Spunt’s bad beat and Forman’s elimination to Lambard, the two finalists kicked off the two-handed duel with about even stacks.
Lambard quickly began applying pressure on his last surviving competitor to accumulate half of all chips in play in front of him. However, Spunt showed that he was ready to put up a good fight and doubled up not long after. The player regained the chip lead and never looked back.
The name of the champion became known only a few hands later. On what turned out to be the final hand in play, Lambard shoved from the button with [Ks][Kh] and Spunt called with [As][9c]. The board ran out [7s][6s][9s][Js][10c], giving a flush to both players. However, Spunt’s ace locked up the title for him. Lambard collected a not bad payday of $107,640 for his deep run in the Main Event.
As for Spunt, aside from the hefty payout and the gold ring, the brand new WSOP Circuit Main Event champion also secured a seat into next summer’s season-ending Global Casino Championship.
The player told WSOP Circuit staff that his victory and his overall good streak have encouraged him to play more poker and to improve his game. Spunt said that he currently plays no more than 30 tournaments a year, but that he plans to become more active on the felt once he semi-retires from his business.
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