Curtis King came into the final day of the $1,700 Main Event with the chip lead and, despite a few bumps in the road, cruised to the to his largest career score of $363,703 and his first career gold WSOP Circuit ring, plus a $5,000 package to Paradise.
King took a back seat early on as A.J Kelsall turned two pair to send Jeremy Eyer home in 11th place for $23,731, to combine the field down to one table, but once all ten players were on the same playing field, he jumped right into the mix by sending Wayne Harmon home in 10th place for $23,731.
However, after the early elimination, that's when the first bump in the road knocked him off course as Toby Boas started to get hot and began running away with the chip lead after sending David Sathue home in 9th place for $30,194 and taking a big pot off of King.
After weathering the Boas storm, both players then took backs seats as short stack Ciao De Lucca Sobral was sent home in 8th place for $38,980 by Donta Moss, but that was just the eye of the storm giving the table a reprieve as Boas then sent Scott Gronroos home in 7th place for $51,053.
It was then King's turn once again to test the waters when A.J. Kelsall double-check-raised with middle set on the flop and the turn, but unfortunately for the 4-time ring winner, King had turned a flush and Kelsall's day was done in 6th place for $67,820.
Boas would then go back to his winning ways as he flopped top pair to send Moss home in 5th place for $91,361, just before the second break of the day. After the break, King looked to have fully endured the rough seas when he sent Kataka Eaton home in 4th place for $124,782, but that glitter turned into another gale when Ryan D'Angelo doubled through King moments later, giving all three remaining players a shot at the crown.
Boas kept applying pressure and got back into a large chip lead, but the once hurricane-force threat was neutralized thanks to a dirty river in a pot he wasn't even a part of.
With D'Angelo sitting at roughly 18,000,000 effective, King four-bet ripped it from the button with pocket fours only for D'Angelo to snap call from the small blind with pocket kings. The flop was no help to King, but the turn gave him a wheel draw, giving him six outs to score the elimination or be left on the short stack.
The river was one of those outs in the form of the four of hearts, and D'Angelo pounded the table in frustration; the spectator area let out an audible gasp, and after a count of the chips, King had a 2-to-1 chip lead going into the heads-up match against Boas, and D'Angelo's day was done in third place for $172,763.
With an actual thunderstorm rolling through Cherokee, North Carolina, King found all the momentum heads-up and quickly grew the chip lead after correctly calling down with second pair against Boas' king-high and going runner-runner two pair to set the stage for the final hand.
On that final hand, with the board reading 
, King moved all in for nearly 12,000,000 effective, which was double the size of the pot, and after some friendly banter in which Boas admitted he was thinking about folding, he changed his mind and tossed in the call with 
for a pair and a straight draw.
King had correctly deduced that his 
was the best hand and, in his own words, wanted to make it look like he was trying to buy the pot with a big draw, and got Boas to call it off behind. When the river landed the 
, Boas was out the door in 2nd place for $242,423, and King let out a scream that was the culmination of years of frustration being released from his body.
