The 2019/20 World Series of Poker circuit kicked off in highly anticipated fashion at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, and not one but two players in the field secured their slice of poker immortality.
Being able to win one gold ring in these high-quality events is one thing, but to claim two in a single day? That was the stuff of dreams for David Larson.
He made history by winning two rings in the space of just 24 hours, and ironically he wasn’t even entered into the tournament at first – he simply stopped by the Choctaw on his way to the Global Casino Championship at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina.
Making a quick detour, the 48-year-old entered into Event #7, which was a $400 buy-in No-Limit Hold’em game, and subsequently walked away with all the chips, beating the 123-strong field to the $11,000 top prize.
That was the third ring of the Wisconsin pro’s career, but he achieved something that nobody else has in winning again barely a day later.
That victory came in Event #9, which was a $250 No-Limit Hold’em game, and this time Larson bested 179 opponents to win just over $9k and his second gold ring of the meeting.
Just over $20,000 big ones and two WSOP gold rings… stopping off in Durant is one of the smartest decisions David Larson has ever made!
Holcomb Shows Big Game Pedigree
After Larson’s heroics, all attention turned to the $1,700 Main Event.
And when the dust settled, it was Hollis Holcomb who announced himself as the first WSOP Circuit champion of 2019 by outlasting a near-1000 player field.
The initial prize pool was set at $1 million, but a swell of late entries saw that increase to nearly $1.5m – much to Holcomb’s pleasure.
The 47-year-old, an amateur poker player who works in cybersecurity, earned his first WSOP gold ring and a paycheque of $255,535 in claiming his first-ever big event win.
Mind you, the champion won’t be getting his hands on all the cash. Holcomb plays in a 15-man home poker league in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, and the rule of the club is that the overall winner gets their World Series of Poker entry played for by the other members of the league – on the proviso that they give half of their prize money to the members.
So there will have been plenty of people on the edge of their seat when he landed a J-J pair in heads-up play with his final table opponent, Vincent Moscati. Going all-in with A-K unsuited, Moscati could only watch on as a flop of 9-7-4 of clubs gave him the flush draw.
However, the turn and the river were both queens, handing Holcomb two-pair and the chance to celebrate his first major poker success.
The 2019/20 World Series of Poker now moves on to Harrah’s Cherokee from August 1 through 12, before heading on to Connecticut and the Foxwoods Resort Casino for the third leg of the new schedule.
