The World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Horseshoe Hammond saw the ending of its 8th event, with Richard Bai emerging as winner to take home his first-ever WSOP Circuit gold ring.
The player managed to overcome all of his opponents and win the $1,125 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em event to lay hands on the prize, which included the tournament’s title, a gold WSOP Circuit gold ring and the largest monetary cash portion amounting to $38,919.
The winning boosted Richard Bai’s total winnings to date to $455,094, with his best live cash being estimated to $135,040. It was generated for his runner-up position at the 2014 Chicago Poker Classic $1,500 NLHE Main Event. The victory, however, marks the player’s 19th WSOP cash and is even more remarkable, since Bai does not usually hunt for tournament grinds.
WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond Event #8
The No-Limit Hold’em tournament attracted a total of 139 entries, who competed over two days and 23 levels of play, until the conclusion was reached. The event offered a buy-in of $1,125 and accumulated a prize pool of $139,000.
Over the first day of the event, it was Bai who was most successful of the entire players field. At the time when the first leg of the game was through, he had accumulated a chip stack of 239,000 and was on top of the pack, holding the overall chip lead. The advantage he had to his competitors expanded on the second day, with him holding a massive stack of 600,000 in tournament chips at the time when the unofficial final table was formed.
But still, even with him holding the chip lead, it was not an easy win for Richard Bai to take down the event. At the time when there were only ten players left, five of them were former Circuit title holders. They were eliminated one by one, until Richard Bai and Christopher Chiang were the only two players left to compete for the event’s title and the first-place prize. Neither one of them had won a WSOP Circuit gold ring before, so both of them were aimed at emerging victorious from the heads-up play.
Final Table Ranking
With Richard Bai emerging as winner of the WSOP Circuit Horseshoe Hammond Event #8, taking home a monetary prize portion of $38,919, Christopher Chiang occupied the runner-up position. He was granted with a cash prize estimated to $24,055 for his efforts. The third place in the ranking was taken by Robert Hankins, who won a $17,364 prize.
Edward Han remained fourth, followed by Carter Myers on the fifth place. The sixth position was occupied by Neil Patel, while Shawn Quinn got seventh. Kevin Schulz ranked eighth, and the ninth position in the ranking was taken by Henry Thiel.
