Michael Persky – Photo Credit: Hayley Hochstetler/8131 Media
Michael Persky picked up his first gold ring with a victory within the World Series of Poker Circuit predominant occasion hosted at Graton Casino & Resort on Monday, August 21. He took residence the highest prize of $175,595 to take his profession earnings near $250,000. The resident of close by Novato, California had a robust run on the match sequence with a runner-up end in occasion no. 3 to his credit score as effectively.
“I had a good series,” stated Persky to reporters after the win. He continued, “My problem is I love my family, and for me to be away from my family to play the big events is super difficult for me. The Bay Area is a Mecca for poker, there’s a lot of good places to play.”
The $1,500 buy-in no-limit maintain’em match attracted a discipline of 616 entries over two beginning flights. That took the prize pool as much as $933,240 to simply high the assure of $500,000. The high 93 gamers all took residence at the very least $2,564 in prize cash.
Every participant who made the cash returned for the beginning of Day 2, and half the sector was misplaced through the first two ranges of play. The ultimate desk was set earlier than 11 pm, and notables that made a deep run within the match included Wendy Freedman (tenth), Brandon Zuidema (fifteenth), Darryll Fish (sixteenth), Josh Prager (twenty seventh), Rayo Kniep (twenty eighth), Matt Wantman (thirty seventh), and Ian Steinman (forty seventh).
Persky was sixth in chips when playing cards received into the air at 1:00 PM native time to start out the ultimate day of the match. His technique was to hold again through the early going on the ultimate desk and let the bustouts fly throughout him. That was the appropriate selection of motion as Ben Ludlow fell in ninth early, and he was adopted to the rail by Avenes Rastomyan (eighth), Kurt Watkins (seventh), Zhengxiong Zouxu (sixth), and Paul Vlahos (fifth) through the first few hours of play.
Persky scored his first knockout punch on the ultimate desk when he took down Ben Underwood in fourth place. Persky held A-J to dominate the A-2 of Underwood, and the board stored Persky forward. Persky maintained that momentum when he scored a well timed double-up throughout three-handed play.
That double-up got here by the hands of five-time gold ring winner Jasthi Kumar, who was left on the ropes after the hand. Kumar was compelled to shove brief a short while later with Q-4, and Persky wakened with A-Ok towards him. The board introduced two extra kings so Kumar was out in third place.
The ultimate two gamers had been even in chips initially of heads-up play, and a pleasant environment between the 2 gamers developed at the same time as Sarasin started to tug away. “I’ve known Danny a really long time so it was kind of crazy to be playing against him,” Persky stated of the heads-up ultimate. Persky additionally added, “He was crushing me, I hit a straight and then the momentum changed.”
The ultimate hand noticed Sarasin get all in preflop with Ok-9, however Persky was prepared and ready with A-Q. Two aces on the flop sealed the deal, and Sarasin was eradicated in second place ($100,528). Sarasin was additionally from the close by city of Petaluma, and he scored the biggest money of his match profession as effectively.
Here is a have a look at the payouts and POY factors awarded on the ultimate desk:
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Michael Persky | $175,595 | 840 |
| 2 | Dan Sarasin | $100,528 | 700 |
| 3 | Jasthi Kumar | $80,315 | 560 |
| 4 | Ben Underwood | $60,122 | 420 |
| 5 | Paul Vlahos | $45,532 | 350 |
| 6 | Zhengxiong Zouxu | $34,890 | 280 |
| 7 | Kurt Watkins | $27,055 | 210 |
| 8 | Avenes Rastomyan | $21,233 | 140 |
| 9 | Ben Ludlow | $16,868 | 70 |
The subsequent cease on the WSOP Circuit schedule has already begun on the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with a $1,700 buy-in predominant occasion that runs from August 25-28. You can see the total schedule for the match sequence proper right here.
