Council Bluffs, Iowa (April 6, 2016) -- Maurice
Hawkins has just won the 2016 Horseshoe Council Bluffs Main Event to
become the seventh player in WSOP Circuit history to win six career gold
rings. This is his first Circuit Main Event victory and second gold
ring of this series. Last Thursday Hawkins won the series’ Monster Stack event to capture his fifth gold ring.
Coming into today, the third and final day of the WSOP Circuit Main
Event at Council Bluffs with six players remaining, Hawkins was
guaranteed a min cash of at least $21,489, but he had his mind made up
that he was going to take this down. On April 6th, Hawkins had
predicted on Twitter that he would win two tournaments in the month of
April. Not only did he do just that, but he actually went two-for-two
in the series, as the Monster and Main were the only two events he
played.
Hawkins can credit some of his success at this series to
changing up his style of play. He describes his new style of play as
“smart” compared to his old style of “erratic.” He said that he feels
confident going into the summer with the money from his recent wins, as
well as his newly refined style of play.
One could argue that Hawkins's road to this victory really began mid day on Day 2, after he took down an 820,000 chip pot
with pocket aces against T.M. Williams's pocket sevens. When asked
about how that particular pot changed the course of the game for him
Hawkins said, “I was thinking that there was no way in hell that I could
get the amount of chips needed to win the tournament at whatever level
it was, because my chip lead was massive. Even if I won a 100 or lost
50, I think losing 50 would be more hurtful than winning 100 [would be
helpful]. I was just focused on not losing pots.”
Hawkins's strategy of not losing pots obviously worked, as he entered
Day 3 second in chips behind Ryan Phan. Josh Turner entered the day in
third place, but ended up getting eliminated in 6th place after getting it all in with against Ryan Phan’s prefop, and the board ran out jack-high. Bob Slezak was eliminated in 5th place ($28,177), and Maxx Coleman was eliminated in 4th place ($37,533) just ten minutes later.
Finishing third place was Mike Lang.
This was the second consecutive year Lang reached this event’s final
table. Last year Lang finished runner-up to Michelle Chin for $54,468.
These two cashes are the only two of his WSOP career and are worth more
than $105,000.
Heading into heads up play, Phan had Hawkins nearly four to one in chips. Within thirteen minutes, Hawkins doubled after turning Broadway to bring it closer back to even. And just 30 minutes after that, the story changed drastically when Hawkins won a monster pot
to take the chip lead from Phan after turning a full house, and Phan
turned trip fives. Phan never recovered from that pot, and Hawkins went
on to claim the title after hitting a three outer on the river holding
against Phan’s on a board, the final hand of the tournament.
“I feel great,” says Hawkins. “I feel really great about life.”
Hawkins has reason to feel great after winning $113,152, and his sixth
gold ring. When asked what he plans to do to celebrate his answer was
simple, “I am going home.”
A total of 321 entries turned out to play this Main Event, nearly 100 more than last year's Circuit Main Event here. The
field was not lacking in some big name poker players. Rex Clinkscales,
Alex Masek, Ari Engel, former November Niner Dennis Phillips, three-time
Council Bluffs Main Event Winner Blair Hinkle, and many others all
showed up to take their shot at winning the coveted title.
Notables cashing in this event included Joshua Turner (6th - $21,489),
Ryan Tepen (11th - $8,460), David Cossio (16th - $5,797), Neil Scott
(19th - $4,902), Ray Henson (20th - $4,902), Ting Ho (21st - $4,902),
and Allen Kessler (33rd - $2,875). Kessler’s min-cash in this event
marked his third cash of the Series. When he was eliminated from the
Main, he quickly jumped into Event #12 ($365 No Limit Turbo), where he
went on to make his fourth cash of the series, after only playing five
events total.
In addition to $113,152 prize money and the coveted ring, Hawkins has
earned a free entry into the 2016 WSOP Global Casino Championship.
Every Main Event winner and Casino Champion at each of the 2015-2016
WSOP Circuit stops receives a free entry (valued at $10,000) that
features a minimum prizepool of $1,000,000. Hawkins was in contention to
win this stop's Casino Champion. However, the Main Event winner gets
no additional points, and as a result Josh Turner, who took 6th in the
main will take the title of Casino Champion.
Here are the final table results from the Circuit Main Event at the Horseshoe Casino.
1 – Maurice Hawkins - $113,152
2 – Ryan Phan - $69,962
3 – Mike Lang - $50,813
4 – Maxx Coleman - $37,533
5 – Robert Slezak - $28,177
6 – Joshua Turner - $21,489
7 – Daniel Shea – $16,645
8 – Mike Vanier - $13,087
9 – Jose Mendoza - $10,444
A list of full results are available here.