Rob Stephens won his first WSOP Circuit Ring while playing in the second tournament he has ever taken part in. The 2016/17 WSOP Circuit $365 Buy-in No Limit Hold’em Eight Max event started on August 9th at Harrah’s Cherokee. The 36-year-old player managed to beat the all other 325 participants and won the tournament’s #7 event.
The $365 Buy-in No Limit Hold’em Eight Max event gathered a total of 326 players who accumulated a total prize pool estimated to $97,800. this is the second tournament Stephens has ever played in, who is an occasional poker player.
The 36-year-old man himself revealed that he had decided to take part in the event because he had had a few days off work. He also explained this was only the second tournament he has ever played so far. The first one he entered was a WSOP turbo event several years ago, and it was not much success for him. Stephens revealed he had no previous professional poker experience and he had only been playing cash games with friends.
In addition, when talking about his experience at the WSOP Circuit Ring $365 Buy-in No Limit Hold’em Eight Max event Stephens admitted he had a total of five goals. First of all, he confessed that he need to survive Day 1 of the event. Then, he set a prize money mark of $1,000 as his next goal. The third major goal of Stephens to accomplish was to get to the final table and then, rank within the last three standing players. The last goal for Stephens when making it to the final table, was to win the event.
When he started his play on Day 2 of the event, Stephens was somewhere near the middle of the players’ pack. He started with a total of 130,000 in chips at 1,500/3,000 blinds with a 300 ante. The player, who works as a Physician Assistant gathered over 300,000 in chips after the first break, and was second in chips when he came into the final table.
Curtis King was his most serious opponent, but Stephens managed to eliminate him and send him to the second position with an overall prize of $14,521. William Byrnes occupied the third position with a prize of $10,654. William Heinig ranked fourth, and Juan Mora got eliminated at the fifth place. Perry Shiao, Matthew Goins and Christopher Shaw were next, taking sixth, seventh and eight place, respectively. The last two players from the Top 10 players in the tournament were Merton Toler (ninth place) and Jason Tulloss (tenth place).
- Author
Harry Evans
