Evan Sandberg is your Harvey's Lake Tahoe Main Event champion

Topping a field of 439 entries, Evan Sandberg has won the WSOP Circuit Main Event at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe, outlasting an incredible final table of talent on Monday that included multiple Circuit Main Event champions, WSOP bracelet winners, and a litany of accolades outside the WSOP.

For his win, Sandberg wins $133,837, his first WSOP Circuit ring (to go with two WSOP online bracelets), and entry into the 2025 WSOP Tournament of Champions.

Sandberg said after the win that he couldn’t have asked for a better place to claim his first piece of live WSOP hardware.

“It feels quite amazing, especially because Lake Tahoe is probably my favorite place to travel for poker, which I can only do once a year. I live in Vegas and I go to Thunder Valley sometimes, but this is the number one spot I’d like to win at, so it makes it extra special.”

Sandberg says he loves to 'helicopter fold'. Pretty sure this is his favorite helicoptering of cards ever.

The other five players were a thoroughly accomplished group that Sandberg had to outlast including the venerable start of Day 2 chip leader Travis Stenerson (6^th), Two-time WSOP Circuit Main Event champion here in Tahoe Michael Pearson (5^th), 2018 Thunder Valley Circuit Main Event champ Brett Murray (4^th), fellow online bracelet and Circuit ring winner Dann Turner (3^rd), and James Czarnecki (2^nd) who added a runner-up spot to two previous Circuit Main Event final tables.

Dann Turner fell in 3rd place after starting Day 3 with the chip lead

Despite having that daunting lineup to go through to win, Sandberg relished the opportunity.

“For me, I always enjoy a challenge, so playing with tough competition does make it a lot funner to me. It just motivates me to really play my best.”

Following the elimination of the start of Day 3 chip leader Turner in third place, Sandberg was left with a virtually even heads-up match against Czarnecki, but he quickly trailed nearly 2-to-1 at the first break.

James Czarnecki and Evan Sandberg during their heads-up match

A critical hand once they returned swung the momentum firmly in the eventual champion’s favor and he never looked back.

Sandberg three-bet a Czarnecki’s open with queen-six offsuit, and a surprisingly large pot continued from there.

Sandberg explained his preflop thoughts on the hand.

“I felt like I wanted to be very polarized, I thought I could maybe get some better hands to fold. I really hate three-bet folding a good hand like queen-jack, I want to call because I have to see a flop, but queen-six, okay, I three-bet, he four-bets, it’s not painful, I just fold.”

Instead, Czarnecki called and the flop came queen-high.

“I thought he looked weak when he raised, (which was) a completely bad read, and post-flop it’s just the money’s going in and I got incredibly lucky.”

Sandberg did so by drilling a six on the turn to give him two pair versus what turned out to be ace-queen for Czarnecki.

“I was already on the flop thinking like, okay I’m probably stacking off unless the turn was really bad. When the turn hit, I essentially had the nuts now, my heart was pumping at that point I’m sure. Really sick.”

Sandberg check-raised the turn and got all in with his two pair holding on to give him the 2-to-1 lead.

Czarnecki couldn’t climb back into the match from there and within an hour, Sandberg was the champion.

In a curious twist, it was the very hand (AQ) that Sandberg took down in his critical Q6 hand that he won the tournament with

The WSOP Circuit now heads to the Chicagoland area this weekend for a 19-event series at the Grand Victoria along with the ongoing series at Choctaw in Durant, Oklahoma running until November 11th.

PokerOrg is at these and all WSOP Circuit stops as your home for continuing coverage of the WSOP Circuit.

Event #13: $1,700 Main Event final table results:

1. Evan Sandberg - $133,841
2. James Czarnecki - $87,977
3. Dann Turner - $59,232
4. Brett Murray - $40,871
5. Michael Pearson - $28,921
6. Travis Stenerson - $21,101
7. Vinny Chu - $15,659
8. Bilguun Odgerel - $11,999
9. Lee Viloria - $9,455
10. David Lucchesi - $7,669

Event #18: $400 Double Stack Closer champion Jed Hoffman

A group of ten players with several making repeat appearances at the Harvey's Tahoe final table this series ended up coming down to two players who didn't, though at least one of them is very familiar with final tables.

Jed Hoffman defeated Paul Sampson heads-up after outlasting a huge final event field of 193 entries to take down Event #18: $400 Double Stack Closer for the final ring of this year's Harvey's Tahoe WSOP Circuit series and just under $15,000.

The ring is Hoffman's sixth to go along with an online bracelet in his very accomplished poker career that totals over 200 WSOP cashes and many more elsewhere.

Of Hoffman's WSOP victories, this is his fourth in a live setting to go with three online. While he's very familiar with winning in both arenas, he says he prefers the one that comes with a photoshoot. 

"It's just better, I dunno. You get the chips, it's tactile, just here it's kind of more exciting than sitting in your living room and doing it. Live is real nice."

Along with the cash and the ring, Hoffman receives an entry into the 2025 WSOP Tournament of Champions.

The final table started with a unique story as husband and wife Joseph and Veronica Mongkol-ua-aree both made the final ten, but it was then Seniors event winner Joseph eliminating his wife in 10th place before busting in 6th place himself.

The others making repeat final table appearances that fell short of their goal were Lee Markholt and Scott Roberts who fell in 5th and 7th respectively.

Event #18: $400 Double Stack Closer final table results:

1. Jed Hoffman - $14,977
2. Paul Sampson - $9,805
3. Dan Casetta - $6,612
4. Audrey Jarrett - $4,597
5. Lee Markholt - $3,300
6. Joseph Mongkol-ua-aree - $2,447
7. Scott Roberts - $1,877
8. Duy Ho - $1,492
9. Andrew Greenawalt - $1,229
10. Veronica Mongkol-ua-aree - $1,051

With the final ring now awarded, we say thank you to Harvey's Lake Tahoe for hosting another great series full of tremendous stories and thrilling action.

Stay tuned to PokerOrg for more excitement from the WSOP Circuit throughout the remainder of the 2024-25 season. 

One last chance for a ring is down to the final ten

What a way to wrap things up in Lake Tahoe!

The final ring event, Event #18: $400 Double Stack Closer has a multitude of stories, none cooler than the husband-wife duo of Joseph and Veronica Yvette Mongkol-ua-aree.

Joseph won the first seniors event and finished fourth in last night's second one, and now he's at another final table with his wife!

Also making a final table on consecutive nights is Lee Markholt, who finished third in last night's Seniors' event.

And Duy Ho is looking to win on back-to-back nights after chopping the $140 nightly tournament last night.

Along with these accomplishments, Scott Roberts is at his third final table of the series and looking to close out the series with a win.

Here's a look at how this awesome final table shapes up.

• Seat 1: Scott Roberts - 500,000
• Seat 2: Jed Hoffman - 650,000
• Seat 3: Andrew Greenawalt - 490,000
• Seat 4: Paul Sampson - 1,000,000
• Seat 5: Dan Casetta - 1,210,000
• Seat 6: Lee Markholt - 1,330,000
• Seat 7: Joseph Mongkol-ua-aree - 555,000
• Seat 8: Duy Ho - 1,500,000
• Seat 9: Audrey Jarrett - 490,000
• Seat 10: Veronica Yvette Mongkol-ua-aree - 305,000

Registration has officially closed in the final event of the series, Event #18: $400 No-Limit Hold'em Double Stack Closer. With 193 entries, the prize pool reached $63,690. Play will continue until one player claims the top prize of $14,977 and a WSOPC gold ring.

• Entries: 193
• Prizepool: $63,690
• First Place: $14,977
• Min-Cash: $826

Full prizepool breakdown here