The first WSOPC of 2025 has come and gone here at Choctaw. Numbers for Event #17: $1,700 Main Event were up from the last November as a massive field of 1,070. The field generated a massive prize pool of $1,621,050, that saw many players paid out over three days, but only eight came back to today.
Just over the summer, Eric Taylor final tabled the WSOP Mystery Bounty online. Unfortunately for him, a distraction or two lead him to falling asleep and finishing the tournament in sixth. He feared afterwards that another chance for a piece of WSOPC jewelry would not come for some time. Well the opportunity arised and after a long, grueling, heads up match, Taylor found himself putting his first WSOPC ring around his finger.
When asked the question as to whether the ring or money meant more, he had a definite answer.
"The ring," he said quickly "it's kinda funny. Earlier this tournament I was taking a little bit of flak for some of the time I was taking preflop on some decisions. This tournament I was focusing a lot of timing. About halfway through heads up it was getting really grindy. There weren't a lot of preflop play."
Heads up saw play slow down as over 4 hours of a battle occurred between Taylor and Debbie Lee.
"She didn't make any mistakes, played really good, so I tried to speed some things up in the heads up match. This time it was to try to throw the timing off from earlier."
"I caught a lot of two pairs over her two pairs," Taylor mentioned as far as the card distribution heads up "it happened quite a few times. She made a couple really good calls on my blulffs, she called quite a bit of mine. It was a good battle."
"I've been doing this a long time," Taylor mentioned as far as his poker experience goes "we have a weekly game. I play quite a bit with a lot of people around here. I was waiting for something like this for a long time, I told myself that I would only play the ones that would make a huge score like this. This one feels pretty great."
His next plans are not to crazy with the money.
"I don't travel a lot for poker, I play these events here at Choctaw. It's a really great casinos. I also go to Vegas in the summers."
He was happy to learn of the new seat that he also won for WSOPC 2025 tournament of champions, a trip he is very happy to make. With that the new champion was embraced by his wife and took his new ring before walking to the payout cage.
Day 3 Payouts
- Eric Taylor -$259,721
- Debbie Lee -$173,145
- Thomas Romeo -$120,563
- Arthur Morris -$85,387
- Cody Bartlett - $61,527
- Kannon McCavit - $45,120
- Changliang Deng - $33,686
- Alain Raad - $25,611
Day 3 Action
The beginning of the day would see Arthur Morris all in against Kannon McCavit in a classic preflop race. McCavit's queens could not hold up against Morris' ace-king and the two of them effectively swapped stacks at the final table. Another sizable pot off of Eric Taylor would see Morris' stack consolidate into the third largest left.
Another preflop all in would see the pair hold up as as Alain Raad (pictured) would four-bet jam his ace-king against Debbie Lee's tens. A ten on the flop would see Lee add even more to her chip lead and Raad would collect a career best $25,611 for his eighth place run here today.
Lee's tenure as chip leader was quickly challenged by Thomas Romeo who would clash with Changliang Deng (pictured) after Romeo opened with ace-king and Deng defended with nine-seven. Deng would flop a flush and Romeo would flop top pair with a flush draw, seeing both players getting their chips in on the flop. The river coming out another heart, Romeo would ascend into the lead and Deng would take $33,686.
McCavit's (pictured) short stack journey came to an end as his ace-king suited moved in against the pocket nines of Taylor and a queen-high board would see the Michigan player take home a career best score of $45,120 for sixth place and his second final table of the week.
Romeo (pictured) opened a pot and Lee three-bet which would prompt a four-bet from Cody Bartlett which only Lee would call. Bartlett's down-bet on the ten-high flop would prompt an all in from Lee who held pocket nines, leading to a snap call from Bartlett with pocket kings. Things looked all good until the board ran out to give Lee a flush, putting her back in the chip lead and Bartlett collected $61,527 for his fifth place finish.
It then sat with Lee and Romeo holding the big stacks, with Taylor and Morris (pictured) sitting as the short stacks. Taylor would double up through Morris and then double again through Romeo courtesy of a bluff which would leave Morris as the lone short stack. Morris would jam with ace-jack over Lee's open with ace-eight. An eight high board would give the pot over to Lee and the WSOPC Tulsa champion would exit in fourth place for $85,387.
Only one hand would go by before the next elimination as Romeo (pictured) four-bet jammed with his last chips holding ace-ten against Taylor's ace-king. No help was brought to Romeo and he would finish at his third final table of the series, collecting a career best score of $120,563.
Heads Up
Taylor would begin the heads up match with the sizable chip lead, with Lee holding the shorter stack. The first major confrontation would see Taylor just flat queens preflop against Lee's raise with queen-six. Lee would flop second pair with a flush draw and all the chips would go into the center, with Lee's flush draw coming in on the turn to give her a 3:1 chip lead.
The next chunk of hands would see Lee move all in several times and shorten Taylor to just around 20 big blinds. When he got slightly shorter than that, Taylor limped and then called off with ace-two to hold against Lee's queen-six. A couple more hands would be played after that in which Lee would pull back ahead, but she moved in for 26 big blinds with ten-six against Taylor's king-queen which would hold up. The third double up would come courtesy of a nine-high board as Taylor got in with an open ended straight draw against Lee's top pair. Taylor would pair up his high card and he would ascend into the chip lead.
As the day continued, a full level would go by of Taylor in the chip lead as he applied pressure to extend his lead. Many smaller pots would go his way and Lee would move all of her chips in during a couple of hands to claw back some chips, with very few showdowns reached. The next level would begin and a pot would occur where Taylor would bet the same amount on two streets, then fold to Lee when she raised up, ceding the lead to her.
Lee's chip lead would be short lived as she value bet river with aces-up only to be called Taylor's flush. Another pot would see her value bet against with queens up, only to lose to Taylor's kings up. A few more smaller pots would be shifted around but Taylor would continue to trend upwards throughout the next two levels. As the players went on their dinner break, Taylor would sit with a near 3:1 chip lead on Lee.
When they returned from dinner Taylor would extend the lead a little further and then Lee (pictured) would move all in with five-four to Taylor's ace-two. The two on the flop would lock up the pot for Taylor to take down the win and his first WSOPC title while Lee finished in second for her career best score of $173,145.
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and the ace-two paired both cards to leave Taylor collecting the remaining chips in the tournament. 
