Zachary Donovan has added another Circuit ring to his to his first one by taking down the $1,700 Main Event of the 2018/19 WSOP Circuit Seminole Coconut Creek after nine hours of action on the final day. Apart from the second career gold ring, the victory also brought Donovan his second-largest live poker cash so far.
The first-place cash prize boosted the total live earnings of Zach Donovan to $1,359,386, but failed to surpass the best live cash in his career to date – the $262,930 cash prize he won for his runner-up position at the WPT Maryland Live! $3,500 NLHE Main Event in September 2017.
Zachary Donovan (@zdonovan22) wins Event #11, $1,700 NLHE Main Event @WSOP Circuit @CasinoCocoPoker, collecting $243,916 and his second career Circuit ring. https://t.co/MjXzECVZPH pic.twitter.com/Cq4ned6Ea0
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) February 19, 2019
The WSOP Circuit Seminole Coconut Creek $1,700 Main Event gathered a total player field of 805 entries. However, after the two starting flights, only 171 returned to Day 2 of the competition, with the number of survivors slashed to 15 before the beginning of the third and final day of the Main Event. The players accounted for a total prize pool of $1,219,575.
The 31-year-old player was one of the 15 survivors who returned on Day 3, with him being second in chips, only behind Jason Young, who started the Final Day of the Main Event as a chip leader with a dominant stack of 4,115,000. At the beginning of Day 3, Donovan had a chip stack of 3,140,000.
Donovan Maintains Chip Lead for Most of Day 3
By the time when the competitors reached the unofficial final table of 10, he had managed to more than double his stack to 8,000,000 in chips. However, at the time when the final table was formed, Donovan had the largest chip stack and kept his lead throughout most of the final table play.
It was not an easy competition for Donovan who maintained his chip lead to the beginning of the four-handed play which lasted for more than three hours. Each of the four remaining players enjoyed the chip lead for at least a few hands, with Donovan returning on top of the pack when he managed to eliminate Izadi.
It's heads-up time in the Circuit Coconut Creek Main Event. Zach Donovan leads with 17.675 million in chips, while Sokchheka Pho has 6.475 million. $243,916 awaits the winner. https://t.co/MjXzECVZPH pic.twitter.com/esPirvhTJS
— WSOP – World Series of Poker (@WSOP) February 19, 2019
At the time when the heads-up play was formed, it was Zachary Donovan and Sokchheka Pho who were the only ones around the final table of the $1,700 Main Event, with a 3:1 chip advantage for Donovan. A bit later, Pho gained momentum just to make it interesting by taking the lead for a while, before Donovan to reestablish control once again. Soon after that, he claimed the winner’s title.
With Zachary Donovan emerging victorious from the 2018/19 WSOP Circuit with the first-place cash prize of $243,916 and his second Circuit gold ring, his last standing opponent Sokchheka Pho occupied the runner-up position, taking home a prize pool portion of $150,374. The third place in the final table ranking was occupied by the Day 3 chip leader Jason Young, who was granted $110,859 for his efforts.
Hamid Izadi remained fourth, followed by Warren Sheaves. Chad Eveslage got sixth, while Jack Shea and Jessica Dawley ranked seventh and eighth, respectively. The ninth place was occupied by Mike Azzaro.
