WSOP-C Hammond

Aaron Flores

The final event of the WSOPC out here in Hammond operated in the room as the tables and chairs around them were being broken down and put away. Event #18: $400 Closer Event drew out a total of 191 entrants over the course of the day, looking to make their Hammond swan song quite strong. 

Earlier this week, Aaron Flores final tabled the second biggest event of the stop in a quest for his third WSOPC ring. Though that final table did not go his way, he came back today to play this last event and now he can put three-time ring winner next to his name as he conquered the first ring at this casino. 

"This one is different for me than the others," he says "because this is my home casino. I've never won one here so it just feels great to take it home here."

With now nearly $500k in lifetime earnings, Flores has been a staple of stops all around the Midwest and even in Florida. While he doesn't have a commitment to one tour above all else, his schedule is packed with travel as he goes all over the US. He dove a little bit into his background as a player and his own history. 

"I come from a Mexican family. Even though I was born here I still consider myself Mexican. I live here (Chicago) and I have been playing poker for about eight or nine years. I started playing tournaments about four years ago and I've been doing it ever since." 

"I actually really like this one because it's kind of a validation of sorts. The first one can be lucky, the second one is good, but the third one," he said while wearing all three of his rings. 

With this ring, this will be the third year in a row that Flores will be playing the Tournament of Champions, which he will go to play no matter where it is. After that, Flores walked over to the cage to collect his payout. 

Final Table Results

1. Aaron Flores - $14,826
2. Raymond Hu - $9,703
3. Michael Reed - $6,543
4. Anthony Kastelic - $4,550
5. Antonio Modacure - $3,266
6. Jennifer Mandel - $2,422
7. Jason Flock - $1,858
8. Rosmel Munoz Cedeno - $1,476
9. John Slaughter - $1,216
10. Almantas Kavaliauskas - $1,041

Thank you for reading along with the updates here at WSOPC Hammond on Poker.Org . Be sure to check in on the live reporting done on Tulsa and all of the upcoming stops for the WSOP Circuit. 

Jennifer Lin

Jennifer Lin had an interesting start to the day on Sunday.

She had come into Day 2 of the Main Event very short and found herself getting pocket eights in against jacks and unfortunately for her, the reverse " payout" jinx did not result in her making a set. She found herself with four hours between herself and the next tournament running, which had her debating whether to go across town to play another tournament or hang around here. 

She landed on playing cash for the next while and as she played she was awarded a freeroll seat to the $400 upstairs in a cash game giveaway. With no reason to play across town, she booked a winning session, registered for the tournament, and ended a text with her friend with this three hours into the tournament "But I am sure I'm going to win this 8-Max." 

Six hours later she proved that text right as she took home her second WSOPC ring and a new high score for tournament cash as she topped a field of 230 entries to win Event #17: $400 No-Limit Hold 'em 8-Max. 

"I made the best of the rest of my day," she said moments after winning. "I had a lot of fun, made a lot of fun plays that I can't remember right now because it's been a long few days and I haven't slept in a while." 

During the final table and especially during the heads-up match, Lin implemented quite a bit of table talk and banter with her opponents, something she very much enjoys and attributes to the success of her game. 

"It's always fun," she said of her table talk "I like being kind of the opposite of what someone would expect of me from the get go. I am, how Jeff Boski would say, a "young Asian female." But once we start playing, I am all up in your ear, aggro, trash-talking. People are sitting there like 'who the **** is this?"' The other day Maurice (Hawkins) came over to the table and tried to run us over with his trash-talking, but needling is my thing." 

Lin won her first WSOPC ring at Elgin two years ago, which propelled her to new heights and to a 19th place finish in the WSOP Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas. The experience inspired her and sticks with her today. 

"I would consider my favorite run of all time as TOC from two years ago. I had just started playing tournaments and I made it into Day 3 to finish in 19th place. It was the best time of my life and it will permanently be the best time of my life. Better than any future weddings, better than any future kids. The great thing about having it in Las Vegas at the beginning of the series is that when I flew home after, they really roped me in. I flew back every other weekend that summer and tried to play everything else. They have got me for life." 

While she is going to go play Elgin in April, Lin plans to take a slight step back from poker in the coming weeks. 

"There are some other series coming up in the future like Wynn and Seminole, but I think I have been focused on poker too much in these past couple of weeks, that I got to go hang out with my friends again. Also, sleep."

Only one final thought was on her mind, an appropriate one to end the day the same way she started it. 

"Payout!"

Final Table Results

1. Jennifer Lin - $17,416
2. Robert Moldovan - $11,300
3. Joshua Reichard - $7,549
4. Vance Essak - $5,199
5. Imran Sajwani - $3,694
6. Daniel Meyers - $2,711
7. David To - $2,057
8. Rosmel Munoz Cedeno - $1,616
9. James Cohen - $1,316
10. Mousa Haddad - $1,112

Stay tuned to Poker.Org to see the final recap yet to come here from Hammond. 

Zal Irani

A total of 361 entrants came into the final Seniors Tournament of the WSOPC Hammond as the series began to wind down. This generated a prize pool of $119,310 to be divided between the final 55 players and as the day came to a close, a very familiar face rose to the top of the counts. 

It was just a couple of days ago when Zal Irani got heads-up in a ring event with Corey Paggeot to get his second WSOPC ring, his first in 12 years. The cards did not fall his way that day and he finished as the runner-up. His run in the Main Event was also cut short as he ended his day in 80th place, but after that, he decided to register in the second WSOPC Seniors event and his decision paid off. Collecting $24,205, a very happy Irani was excited to share his thoughts on his win. 

"This is my luckiest casino, my home casino, my favorite casino," an excited Irani exclaimed about his new win. "I was the maid of honor in the $1k. Very close to getting a ring and a seat in that tournament (of Champions)."

Irani also described why he thinks Seniors tournaments are a smart choice for him to play. 

"I am 52, going to be 53 soon. Seniors tournaments are a no-brainer for me because I think my style of play is different than a lot of other senior players."

Beyond just getting a second ring, Irani achieved another goal that he had held in poker since he first started playing. 

"My goal in poker was always to reach $1 million cashes, and this was the ring that finally did it for me. That and the seat to the freeroll were the two reasons I played this tournament. I wanted that seat more than anything else." 

Despite his confidence in his poker abilities, Irani was nothing but complimentary of his opponents' abilities at the final table. 

"Of the Seniors tournaments I played, this one was really tough," he said "There were multiple really tough players at this final table. You don't often see that in other tournaments around. Heads up became very clear to me it was two solid players, just like in the $1k. It was going to come down to luck and who gets the better cards. Heads up he started the tournament with a lead, but the variance changed and eventually, I just started catching." 

The seat is what Irani wanted most of all, but no matter where it is he will go although he one other comment on that. 

"All bracelet events should be played in Vegas." 

Irani's next plans include going to play the Elgin stop, as well as potentially playing in South America before ultimately going to Las Vegas for the WSOP. With that, the new two-time WSOPC ring winner collected his payout and walked over to the cage. 

Final Table Results

1. Zal Irani - $24,205
2. Timothy Flattery - $16,136
3. Renmei Liu - $11,196
4. Gediminas Poska - $7,927
5. Jason Goodman - $5,729
6. Lonny Burke - $4,228
7. Da Lu - $3,188
8. Ranae Warren - $2,457
9. Terry Quirke - $1,937
10. Anthony Kalin - $1,562

Stay tuned to Poker.Org for all of the recaps of the final events.

Evan Bethyo

Jess Beck

The crowning jewel of the WSOPC in Hammond drew out a nice round number of 900 entrants into this $1,700 buy-in. From those initial faces with a dream, to the final 91 with a path, and to the 6 that came back this morning with hopes of the ring around their finger. After 7 hours of play, it was just one player who stood alone at the top of the stage. 

Five years ago, Evan Bethyo had a brush with this very title as he finished in sixth place at the Main Event here in Hammond for $53,394. Little did he know then, that five years later he would be at the final table once again and put on a dominant performance to conquer his first-ever WSOPC ring and $228,398. 

"The monkey is off my back now," he said just moments after his win "I've been grinding for a long time. Had a few final tables, a few big scores, but it was getting to the point where I just wanted the hardware. I wanted to be a champion more than I wanted the money." 

From two tables left yesterday to the final table today, Bethyo only lost the lead once when Scott Wright doubled up through him in the first level of play today. After that level was finished he ended up retaking the chip lead and holding it until the last hand of heads-up was played. He talked further about the advantages and strategies of holding the big stack in play. 

"Honestly neither sized stack is easy to play," he answered "the big stack is a luxury, but you have to be aggressive. People think that if you have a big stack that you can just fold away, but you still have to selectively be aggressive because otherwise, people around you are just going to be making moves. One thing I noticed deep in tournaments is that you have to make selective aggressive plays to win or get second and the big money in the tournaments. I'm not saying that you can't win if you're tight, but you will have more frequent success making more money if you are selectively aggressive." 

Some players have specific rituals and habits to do before a big Day 3 of a tournament, but Bethyo was a bit under the weather yesterday which had him get very little sleep the night before. He is feeling significantly better today. 

"I don't really have any specific habits I do before a Day 3," Bethyo said. "When I'm not playing poker, I try my best to eat well and do exercise. Nothing specific that I change when I'm playing versus when I'm not." 

Bethyo admitted to never opening a poker book in his life when asked about his poker-playing style. He falls heavily into the feel-player category and uses his over 15 years of playing and cashing in poker tournaments to his advantage. 

"I go to Vegas every summer, I'm going to be down there for the series, and I'll be going over to play Elgin next," Bethyo said when talking about his next plans for his poker trips.

With that, Bethyo walked over to the payout cage to collect a new career-high score and his ring. 

Final Table Results

1. Evan Bethyo - $228,398
2. John Reading - $152,272
3. Scott Wright - $105,678
4. Joe Batterman - $74,644
5. Xing He - $53,677
6. Rich Alsup - $39,311

Final Table Action

The beginning of the final table saw a massive momentum shift as Scott Wright would find himself doubling up against Evan Bethyo with ace-king against Wright's king-queen. That would have been the first all-in confrontation that Bethyo has lost in six clashes. 

Rich Alsup

After that, it would be WSOP bracelet winner Rich Alsup (6th-$39,311) to depart in what the table described as a sick setup. He jammed his pocket jacks into Bethyo's pocket aces and the MSPT all-time money winner would see his run end in sixth place. 

Bethyo had regained his stack that he started the day with at this point, but that would all change in a fateful confrontation with Wright when he called off his top two-pair against Wright's straight and Wright would overtake the lead despite his start of the day chip stack sitting in the bottom half. 

Xing He

A few more big confrontations would occur but it would be Xing He (5th-$53,677) who would be next to go after he moved in his final chips with ace-queen against John Reading's kings. A king-high board was all she wrote for He and he would be the next to be eliminated while Reading raked in the pot. 

After that, Reading would find the flip of yesterday's late-night cooler with Joe Batterman from yesterday, but this time it was Reading who was drawing to two outs with eights against Batterman's two queens. Reading would hit not one, but two of his needed outs to rake in a sizable double-up against Batterman. With all of this spicy action occurring before the first level was over, the chip counts would consolidate more in the second level. 

Despite some early setbacks, Bethyo would regain the lead after drawing a lot of smaller pots from the table, whether it be from Wright or otherwise. By the time the next break rolled around, he would be back in a commanding lead while the other three sat very close to each other in the counts. 

Joe Batterman

Batterman (4th-$74,644) would be on the losing end of a flip to Bethyo as he got in his ace-king up against pocket tens. A queen-high board would see no help come to the tournament regular and he would collect a career-high score with this cash. 

Scott Wright

Reading would don his executioner helmet once more as he would clash in a pot with Wright (3rd-$105,678) when Wright would flop top pair and Reading would turn a flush draw on top of his pair. He would river two pair and jam against Wright to get called and leave Wright with just a few chips left. After that, Wright's ace-three would not be able to hold up against Reading's queen-six and he sent Wright home with a career-best score. 

The heads-up match would see Bethyo come in with a roughly 2.5:1 lead over Reading and they were off in their slugfest. Initially, there was not a ton of movement in either direction, then a few four-bet jams would put Reading on the backfoot with Bethyo ahead. 

John Reading

After they returned from a break, Reading (2nd-$152,272) had under ten bigs and would get even shorter as play continued. It all came to a head when Reading got in his final four big blinds with nine-three against ten-five. Nobody paired either of their cards and Reading finished the tournament in second place while Bethyo took down the title and his first WSOPC ring. 

Thank you for reading along here at Poker.Org for the live updates of the Main Event. Stay tuned to see all of the recaps of the last events of the series.