'Ultimate Amateur' beats the champs in WSOPC Graton Main Event

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Alex Lipkin calls himself the 'Ultimate Amateur' and he certainly earned that moniker on Monday in Northern California.

The Brisbane, California grinder topped a field of 558 entries to win the WSOP Circuit Graton Main Event title for his first career Circuit ring and $162,560, nearly quadrupling his career WSOP earnings.

Lipkin outlasted his final eight opponents at a thrilling final table that included WSOP bracelet and Circuit champions Marco Johnson (third) and Brett Murray (fourth), then completed his win with a significant comeback against runner-up Michael Lin heads-up. 

Michael Lin couldn't stop the Ultimate Amateur.

Ultimate Circuit Champion

Lin was one of two players making back-to-back Circuit Main event final tables along with Antonio Ma (sixth), but both were denied again by a man who says he’ll retain his Ultimate Amateur moniker despite now also being able to call himself a WSOP Circuit Main Event champion.

“One time doesn’t prove anything. I’m going to feel more confident going into tournaments knowing that I’ve done this before because before this I only had two deep runs in WSOP (events) and didn’t play many tournaments. But no, I’m not going to consider myself a great player now because I won one tournament. I’m still an amateur.”

The amateur had to battle back not once but twice against Lin in their thrilling heads-up match that lasted about two hours, first from the start as after Lin’s knockout of Johnson in third place, the eventual runner-up started heads-up play with over a 2 to 1 lead.

Lipkin took advantage of a break to reassess his approach.

The turning point

Lipkin managed to flip the stacks to his advantage quickly, filling a flopped flush draw versus Lin’s middle pair in the first few hands of their match, but Lin clawed back to regain the lead and was seemingly on the verge of victory.

That’s when Lin made what Lipkin saw as a critical error in the middle of Level 30, allowing him to go back into the match again.

“He had a big lead, but then he decided to take a small break, and that was to his disadvantage. During that break, I decided that I’m not aggressive enough, and I started playing more aggressive with worse hands. Then I got even and then he just got unlucky. Eights against queens, what are you gonna do?”

Indeed, after Lipkin had regained a small lead, the pair-over-pair cooler happened and after the stacks were counted down, Lipkin’s queens had won him his first WSOP Circuit ring and the $162,520 first prize.

Pressed a bit further as to whether with his newfound bankroll boost, he might at least consider playing more tournaments, he emphatically shut down that idea, but did say that there’s one tournament that he’ll finally give himself the chance to play.

“No way am I gonna do this full time! But I will play the (WSOP) Main Event this year if my vacation schedule allows me.”

WSOP Circuit Graton Main Event final table results

^{Photos courtesy of Graton Casino/Austin Currington}