As the 2018/2019 season of the World Series of Poker Circuit is sweeping through the Seminole Casino in the charming city of Coconut Creek, Florida, several poker pros won prestigious WSOP titles, complete with gold rings and free seats to the 2019 Global Casino Championship.

On Thursday evening, Mitchell Lekarcyzk triumphed at $400 NLH Monster Stack event, dominating over a strong field of 586 entries. Cory Blum and Matthew Zarcadoolas also grabbed titles in two other tournaments.

The first-place finish at the $400 NLH Monster Stack brought Mitchell Lekarcyzk the first WSOP Circuit title and ring in his career. Lekarcyzk, who is from Steamboat Springs, Colorado, has taken part in live tournaments mostly in his home state and across Las Vegas, so this was his first WSOP Circuit gig. With an impressive performance, however, he managed to overcome the tough competition during these past few days and come out as the $400 NLH Monster Stack champion.

The sixth event of the festival, running currently at the Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, kicked off Tuesday and offered players entry during two starting flights. The tournament proved to be quite popular with poker fans as it attracted 586 entrants who paid the $400 fee. With $330 of each fee going towards the prize pool, organizers collected $193,380, which were split among the top 63 players.

Day 2 of the event started on Thursday with 69 survivors, with Day 1B chip leader Zack Milchman topping the leaderboard. He could not make it to the final table, though, busting at 29th place for a cash prize of $1,073. The chip leader from the first starting flight, Michael Perrone, also finished early in 33rd place for $944. After a lot more eliminations, Ray Millard led the surviving 9 players into the final table with a huge chip lead of over 5 million.

After a 13-hour day of grueling poker, nearly 5 hours of which were spent on the final table, Mitchell Lekarcyzk won the $400 NLH Monster Stack title and the top-place prize of $40,619. He managed to do that in a heads-up battle against Andrew Kaplan who finished second and received $25,118. Millard left the tournament in the third place, cashing $18,367.

Two More WSOP Rings Rewarded

The other poker player who took home a nice cash prize along with a WSOP Circuit title on Thursday was Cory Blum. The 28-year-old former pro is no longer playing professionally but managed to defeat a total of 58 players, including Craig Monrade heads-up in the $600 Pot-Limit Omaha. For his top position, he received a cash prize of $11,394, while the remainder of the $30,385 was split among the other 5 higher-ranking players.

The Seminole Casino Coconut Creek hosted another exciting tournament on Thursday. The single-day $600 No-Limit Hold’em Turbo event started at 11.00 a.m. and drew in 69 players. The total prize pool was $35,535, split among the top 7 players who made it to the money. The minimum guaranteed cash was $1,826, while the winner received $12,436 in prize money. This was Matthew Zarcadoolas from Fort Lauderdale, Florida, who secured the first WSOP Circuit ring in his career.

Friday will see the Final Day of the WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek $2,200 High Roller, which posted an entry field of 65 registrations. After hours of tough poker play, most players were eliminated and only 16 survivors will return to the tables on Friday. Jeffrey Morzella, from Tampa, Florida, will come as the big stack as he managed to bag 242,600 in tournament chips at the end of Day 1. He is followed in the leaderboard by Leandro Faraminan with 196,500 and by 2015 World Series of Poker November Niner Josh Beckley who has 172,800 in chips.

The World Poker Tour has packed up the trucks to close out the summer and few could have chosen a better location. The WPT has landed in Atlantic City, NJ, and, in particular, the Borgata, for the 2018 WPT Borgata Poker Open. Day 3 is now in the books with an East Coast grinder at the head of the pack and a recent “High Roller” who has been making some noise back in the pack.

Liam He Leads Final 24 Players

142 players came back to the tables on Wednesday and, with the money bubble on the horizon, some of them weren’t going to be happy. Only 135 of the people (from the 1075 entries) who returned would be taking home a payday from their trip to the Boardwalk. At the head of the pack was Timothy Miles, but an East Coast player by the name of Liam He would make his mark on the day.

First, there was the matter of popping the money bubble. With the WPT Action Clock running (each player had to make their decision within 30 seconds unless they use an “extension chip” to give them a bit more time to come to a decision), it only took about two hours – and hand-for-hand play only took eleven hands – before a double elimination allowed two players to collect half of the $6057 minimum cash. Brent Roberts was eliminated by Ganjan Jeganathan when his K-J failed to catch Jeganathan’s Big Chick, while Douglas Nelson’s 9♦ 6♦ went down to Richard Tuhrim’s J-8 off suit after Tuhrim sealed his edge by flopping a Jack. The double elimination on the money bubble allowed Roberts and Nelson to split the 135^th place money.

The parade to the cash cage began at this point, with notable pros such as Shannon Shorr, Anthony Zinno, Darren Elias, Mike Dentale, Ryan D’Angelo, Joe McKeehen and several others taking their pay for three days of poker. There were those that weren’t satisfied with just a few thousand dollars, however, and they charged to the head of the pack.

He started out the day as the fifth largest stack in the room and he never seemed to make a bad decision. His chip stack increased through the day’s play until, during the final level of the night, He made his boldest moves. With Athanasios Polychronopoulos all in from the small blind, He would make the call with the goods. His pocket Aces were strong against Polychronopoulos’ A♣ J♣ as, by the turn, Polychronopoulos was drawing dead and He was adding his chips to his stack. At this point, He had five million chips and would ride that stack to have the lead at the end of the night.

1. Liam He, 5.63 million
2. Oleg Shnaider, 5.02 million
3. Erkut Yilmaz, 3.065 million
4. Dhaval Joshi, 2.7 million
5. Anthony Maio, 2.55 million
6. Nick Pupillo, 2.535 million
7. Austin Wentling, 2.52 million
8. Michael Wang, 1.845 million
9. Aaron Kweskin, 1.75 million
10. Ali Imsirovic, 1.695 million

He has been primarily an East Coast pro since he started playing in 2009. According to the Hendon Mob database, 23 of his 26 lifetime cashes have come east of the Mississippi River, with many of them coming in the Northeast poker strongholds of Atlantic City, Hollywood, FL, and Uncasville, CT. On the top of that resume is a third-place finish in the 2016 WPT Borgata Winter Poker Open Main Event, where he took down $297,995 of his $511,473 in career earnings. If he were to win this Borgata event, he would more than double his lifetime tournament poker earnings.

Ali Imsirovic’s Massive Run Continues, Maria Konnikova in the Mix

Imsirovic’s either on one of the hottest streaks of recent memory or he’s actually that damn good. Coming off of winning two events during the 2018 Poker Masters series – and taking home the Purple Jacket as the overall champion – Imsirovic continued to have excellent fortune on the green baize. While he yo-yoed through the day – at times offering double ups and at others getting them himself – Imsirovic’s stack was always in action and, it seemed, always going up. Should he be able to keep the “run good” going, Imsirovic is a threat for the final table.

Another player making some noise during the Borgata Poker Open is psychologist/poker player Maria Konnikova. Konnikova, who came from nowhere to capture the PokerStars Caribbean Adventure National Championship in January and earn a $30,000 seat to the inaugural PokerStars Players’ Championship this winter, has been making waves throughout the year with her play. Although she’ll be on the short stack starting on Thursday (19^th of the 24 players remaining with 725,000 in chips), Konnikova bears watching as she looks to continue her dream year in poker.

The cards will hit the air at noon (Eastern Time) on Thursday, with the final 24 players playing down to the six-handed WPT final table. The champion will be crowned on Friday, with the eventual champion heading out of Atlantic City with their name etched on the WPT Champions’ Cup and $575,112 in their pockets.

Another major event on the fall live tournament poker calendar is set to kick off in just a few hours and excitement is certainly building up at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa where it will take place. Of course, we are talking about the WPT Borgata Poker Open $3,500 Championship, an event that has been part of the WPT schedule since Season 2 of the popular poker series.

This year’s edition of the tournament is set to take place from today, September 16, through September 21. As mentioned earlier, it is a $3,500 buy-in event. The Championship features a guaranteed prize pool of $3 million, but hopes are that there will be a massive interest in it and it will draw a plethora of players to crush the guarantee.

Last year, the WPT Borgata Poker Open Main Event attracted a behemoth field of 1,132 entrants who smashed the guarantee and generated a prize pool of $3,623,532. Guo Liang Chen was the player to outlast the massive field and collect the tournament trophy and the lion’s share of the prize pool. Chen’s first-place prize amounted to $789,058.

It is yet to be seen how much this year’s champ will scoop for remaining the last person standing from the field of one of the most prestigious events to be taking place annually as part of one of the world’s most popular live poker series.

To celebrate the start of a brand new edition of the WPT Borgata Poker Open Championship, Casino News Daily has looked back over the years to present its readers with the three biggest winners of this thrilling tournament. And here they are:

Roy Winston – $1,575,280

Roy Winston won the Borgata Poker Open Main Event back in 2007, or the Season 6 edition of the tournament. The player was part of a 560-strong field. Each of the tournament’s entries paid a buy-in fee of $10,000, which eventually resulted in the creation of a prize pool of $5,432,000. Winston’s share of the prize pool amounted to $1,575,280. That was the largest ever prize to have ever been won within the Borgata Poker Open.

Winston played a star-studded final table that included the likes of Mike Matusow and Haralabos Voulgaris. The player eventually played heads-up against poker amateur Heung Yoon. The latter collected $832,725 for his runner-up finish.

Mark Newhouse – $1,519,020

Newhouse won the Season 5 edition of the tournament back in 2006. The player outwitted a field of 540 entries to collect $1,519,020. The event was a $10,000 buy-in one and featured an overall prize pool of $5,238,000.

Newhouse started his poker career in a particularly exciting way. The player deposited $50 with partypoker to turn it into more than $100,000 within the span of a single month. He won another $100,000 in the very next month, which convinced him that he should pursue a career in poker. It is also interesting to note that Newhouse is one of the few players to have secured spots at the final table of back-to-back WSOP Main Events. The player finished ninth in the 2013 and 2014 editions of the World Championship.

Al Ardebili – $1,498,650

Ardebili won the prestigious WPT Borgata Poker Open title back in 2005 after successfully surviving a field of 515 tournament entries. The tournament featured a prize pool of $4,995,500, generated from the $10,000 buy-in fee paid by its entries.

Ardebili scooped his title after four days of quality poker action that saw him remain the last surviving participant. The player played heads-up against Ricardo Festejo to have his [Ah][9s] on the final hand dealt within the tournament sent his final opponent to the rail. Festejo collected $799,280 for his efforts.

John DePersio joined the club of two-time WSOP Circuit gold ring winners in the early hours of Friday after besting the field of the opening event of the WSOP Circuit Coconut Creek stop. The player scooped a first-place prize of $19,649 as he remained the last man standing after a mad final table run.

The opening $400 No-Limit Hold’em tournament at Seminole Casino Coconut Creek drew 243 entries. The tournament was played over a single day and, as mentioned above, action extended late into the night up to a few hours before Friday’s sunrise. The event featured 30-minute levels which provided for a quick pace of the game as blinds were rising quickly.

Registration for the tournament closed before the start of Level 13. The opening event with its 243-strong field generated a prize pool of $80,190. The top 27 players finished in the money. Min-cashes in the first of a 12-event series were worth $648.

DePersio was the chip leader at the time there were just ten players left. The eventual winner held 882,000 at that point, with Michael Ortiz being his nearest rival with 580,000. DePersio quickly showed his remaining opponents that he was there to win. The player played aggressively throughout the final table and kept his momentum almost throughout that final stage of action.

Final Table Highlights

DePersio really dominated action over the course of the final table and it was early into play that he emerged as the favorite for the title. At one point during seven-handed play, the eventual champ held more than a half of all chips in play. However, his run at the final table had a couple of bumps to make things more exciting. Early into action, DePersio doubled one of his opponents to more than 500,000 and had to grind his way back. As it can be seen, he not only managed to recover, but to scoop the title and the lion’s share of the prize pool.

DePersio eventually played heads-up against Rodney Moret-Rojas. Both players were looking to win their second title from the series. But the Coconut Creek opening event title was meant for DePersio. Moret-Rojas eventually hit the rail in second place, good for a consolation prize of $12,139.

DePersio won his first title from the series back in 2015, when he topped the field of a $1,125 No-Limit Hold’em at Palm Beach Kennel Club for $30,000. The player has one more cash from the WSOP Circuit.

Speaking to WSOP Circuit staff after his triumph, DePersio said that he does not travel much around the country to play poker and mostly plays at casinos in his homestate. He is an entrepreneur and his business does not allow him much time to roam the States in pursuit of great poker accomplishments. Of what he plans to do next, the player said that he would play all the remaining events of the Coconut Creek stop. His goal is to play the Global Casino Championship so he would look to accumulate points over the course of the ongoing series and grab the Casino Champion crown at Coconut Creek.

Monday was a day of many firsts for one particular poker player. Francis Zhang won his first WSOP Circuit cash, his first WSOP Circuit title, and his first WSOP Circuit gold ring. The player bested the field of the $400 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty or Event #2 on the schedule of the ongoing WSOP Circuit Thunder Valley festival for a first-place prize of $13,745 and a gold piece.

He also collected around a dozen of bounties, each worth $100. He managed to get hold of those all the way throughout the tournament. And he scooped the final one for busting his heads-up opponent, Joe Grew from Colorado.

Thunder Valley Casino Resort in Lincoln, California will play host to the WSOP Circuit series over the week. Two events on the festival’s schedule were completed over the past few days, with Zhang’s tournament being marked as Event #2.

The $400 buy-in tournament drew as many as 239 entries who created a prize pool of $54,970. As mentioned above, the event also featured bounties, each worth $100. The winner managed to collect 12 such bounties to boost his first-place award by another $1,200. Aside from Zhang, who went out with the lion’s portion of the prize pool, the top 24 finishers received a share of the money, min-cashes starting from $507.

The tournament kicked off on Sunday and was supposed to be a single-day one. Action extended well into the night with Zhang and Grew battling it out for the title. However, an emergency alarm forced evacuation of the casino, so the two competitors decided that they would continue play on Monday.

Highlights from the Tournament

It was early into Monday when the unofficial ten-handed final table of the tournament was reached. Zhang was the chip leader at the time with 939,000 in chips. The player was well ahead of his nearest rival who happened to be William Chao with 633,000 in chips.

Zhang very much maintained his momentum over the course of the final table. It was Joe Grew whom he faced heads-up. The two players fought in a bid to win the title and the gold ring well into the early hours of Monday. As mentioned above, their match was forced to stop due to an emergency situation at the host casino. The two players decided that they would resume action on Monday, giving themselves a couple of hours to rest.

They returned to finish off what they had started on Monday at 3 pm local time. Zhang was holding the majority of chips at the start of the unscheduled second day and kept his lead until the end of play, which did not last long, actually. The two players battled it out for just eight hands until Zhang dealt the final blow to his last surviving opponent to scoop the title and the accompanying gold piece. Grew received $8,494 for his efforts.

Currently sitting at no.2 on the 2018 WCOOP leaderboard, Norway’s Tobias ‘Senkel92’ Leknes has won two WCOOP titles this year, bringing his total to three overall.

Leknes’s amazing start kicked off with a victory in Event #10-M: $215 NLHE Win the Button, good for $44,064. Three days later he won his second title of the year in Event #20-H: $1,050 NL 5-Card Draw for $17,100.00. Add that to a win in a $109 2-7 Triple Draw tournament last year, and that puts ‘Senkel92’ in elite WCOOP company.

We caught up with Leknes just after his most recent win to discuss all things WCOOP, and why winning the leaderboard is now his priority.

Took down my second WCOOP this series, my third WCOOP-title, and my fourth COOP-title! Now lets go leaderboardhunting! https://t.co/EqmQf8uuOe

— Tobias Leknes (@TobiasLeknes) September 7, 2018

PokerStars Blog: Congratulations on winning your third WCOOP, and second this year! How does it feel?

Tobias ‘Senkel92’ Leknes: “It of course feels great! I got my first in 2-7 Triple Draw last year, but getting the second and third is sweet! I’ve planned to play a lot of events during the series, so getting a win early on is always one of the goals. I didn’t expect one to come in a big field NLHE tourney though!”

PSBLOG: You’ve now got some major momentum behind you.

Tobias: “My confidence is naturally very high right now! But all in all winning two tournaments right from the get go is mostly just me running very pure in the key spots. Also it helps to play small field tournaments such as 5-card draw.”

PSBLOG: Do you enjoy NL 5-Card draw as much as other formats?

Tobias: “I learnt the game last year before SCOOP, and I quickly found it surprisingly funny and also more game theoretical than what I initially believed. It’s cool how there is still room for play when you’re very shortstacked, and how finding flaws in your opponents’ game plan could be exploited, although the draw format gives you less information than other games.”

PSBLOG: Are you a professional player, or do you have a another career?

Tobias: “I do play poker for a living, and I’m currently the Norwegian Champion in both 8-game and Limit Hold’em.”

PSBLOG: What is your life like away from the tables?

Tobias: “I live in Oslo, and I’m really enjoying life there. I like to play chess, volleyball, board games of all kinds. I’m a typically competitive guy.”

PSBLOG: You also took down the Win the Button event. Do you have much experience in this format?

Tobias: “I’ve not played many of these events at all, but I typically find that I am decent at adjusting to different formats. But for the most part I was just lucky in the key situations and ran good!”

PSBLOG: Do you have any strategy advice for people playing their first Win The Button events?

Tobias: “It’s kind of hard to give too much general advice. Typically you’re going to see the two players to your left three-bet you a bit wider, so you might get to four-bet a bit lighter both for value and as bluffs. You will need to defend the big blind very wide against button opens.”

PSBLOG: Were there any key hands that you remember on your way to the Win The Button victory?

Tobias: “I was very lucky at the bubble against one of the bigger stacks to win AQ>AK for a massive pot. I also had some coolers go my way with 7♥5♥ beating ace-three on an A♥K♥3♥ flop in a three-bet pot. I also hit another heart flush with three left holding K♥5♥ against Q♦T♦ on a queen-high two-heart flop blind versus blind.”

PSBLOG: Is this the biggest win of your poker career? If not, what was?

Tobias: “This is in fact my biggest win online. I had some close scores both live and online. I finished second in a $2,100 Limit Hold’em event during SCOOP which was my biggest score online prior to this.”

PSBLOG: What does this win mean for you going forward?

Tobias: “Before WCOOP started I was aiming for fighting for the top prize on the leaderboards. I couldn’t find much information about it (see here for the latest standings) but I assumed there was going to be something. It is of course a long shot to win, but my chances are at least getting slightly better.”

PSBLOG: At this rate, how many titles do you think you can win this year? You’re in a great spot for the leaderboards now!

Tobias: “Well, I’m probably an underdog to win anymore titles, but I will give it a shot! Hopefully I can get in some more final tables and be in position to repeat! Fighting for a top spot on the leaderboard will be a priority.”

Congratulations on your second and third WCOOP titles Tobias.