Little known poker player Gordon Wilcox won his first WSOP circuit ring Monday when he triumphed at the 2018/2019 WSOP Foxwoods Main Event. He defeated an entry field of 519 players and received the first-place prize of more than $160,000.
This is the first live tournament win for Wilcox, a 60-year old restaurant owner and poker enthusiast from Boston, Massachusetts. The prize of $169,052 is also the biggest cash for him, considering his total poker earnings up until now were around $60,000. The Dorchester-based player now has total live cash of more than $223,000. But the monetary prize is just one aspect of his personal success, as, with this finish, Gordon Wilcox also received the first circuit ring in his career, as well as a seat at the 2019 Global Casino Championship.
In order to achieve it, however, he had to defeat quite a tough competition and survive the field of 519 entries who took part in the 2018/2019 WSOP Foxwoods Main Event. The tournament started Friday with a buy-in of $1,700 and gathered a total prize pool of $786,285. Only the top 54 players made it to the money, including Stephen Song (52nd place), Lowell Kim (34th place), previous Foxwoods Circuit Main Event champion Samuel Taylor (32nd place), Brock Wilson (26th place), Mark Perry (24th place), and Nicholas Pupillo (14th place).
Only 8 players made it to Day 3 of the tournament, led by Wilcox who bagged the biggest stack (4,965,000), followed by two-time World Series of Poker Circuit Main Event ring winner Dylan Wilkerson (3,535,000), and Jason Bolton (3,280,000). The first one to leave the final table was Justin Carey who finished 8th and took home $19,657. Short-stacked Sean Kelly was then eliminated by Wilkerson in the 7th place for $25,161, followed by Emmanuel Okrah (6th, 32,395) who busted against Wilcox.
The restaurant owner continued his winning streak and managed to take home Wilkerson (5th, $42,459). There were no eliminations for a while but at one point, short-stacked Dan Chalifour busted from Giuliano Lentini at 4th position and received a cash prize of $56,613. Lentini himself lost most of his stack to Jason Bolton and was defeated by Wilcox at the 3rd place for $76,269. Wilcox’s chip led of 5 to 1 was quite intimidating and Bolton was eventually eliminated at the runner-up position (2nd, $104,576), whereas Gordon Wilcox, as the last player standing, received $169,052 for his win.
Brock Wilson Takes WSOP Foxwoods High Roller Title
The twelfth event of the 2018/2019 WSOP Foxwoods series was the $3,250 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller, which started Sunday and ended Monday evening with Brock Wilson becoming the new High Roller champion. The tournament attracted 58 players, only six of whom made it to the money. With a total prize pool of $174,000, they received a minimum of $10,266, while Wilson won the exciting top prize of $65,250.
The young player from Ardsley, New York, received his first WSOP circuit ring and posted the biggest cash prize in his career. But he admitted he would not have much time to celebrate as he would be heading Tuesday to Montreal for the WSOP Circuit series at Playground Poker.
The 2018/2019 WSOP Circuit at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut is coming to an end with the final, 13th event currently being played. The $400 No-Limit Hold’em Double Stack drew a field of 337 entries who pushed the total prize pool to $111,210. The top 36 places are paid and a minimum of $578 was given to those who reached the money levels. The prize for the winner is $25,579 and there is a chance this would be Harry Ohannession, who led the unofficial final table of ten.
