Jason Gooch reaches four final tables to earn Casino Champion honors.
West Palm Beach, Fla. (February 19, 2015) – Jason Gooch has just won the Casino Champion title at the Palm Beach Kennel Club Circuit stop. He cashed four times, and all four times were final tables. That equates to a third of the series’ final tables. Gooch never led in the Casino Championship standings until the very end of the series.
Gooch started out strong and reached his first final table in the first event of the series. Event #1 was the monster stack event. It drew a field of 421 entries and Gooch recorded a strong 6th place to get on the board early in the series.
His next cash came in Event #7 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em Six Max. Gooch ended up as the first player eliminated from the final table in the six max event, but picked up another 22.5 points to bring his series total to 45 points. At this point he was only a few points behind the leaders. The leaders were the first seven gold ring winners of the series and they all had 50 points.
Since Gooch busted early on Day 2 of the six max event he was able to late register for Event #8 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em and play in that event. It was a good thing he did decide to play because he would end up going on to final table in that event as well. He finished in 5th place in Event #8 to add 25 more points to his total. He now stood at 70 points, which would have been good for the lead in the Casino Championship, except that the Event #8 winner was Austin Peck and Peck already had two cashes prior in the series, so he was at 77.5 points and ahead of Gooch.
Gooch still had four events remaining to try to pass Peck. However, Spencer Champlin won Event #9 - $1,125 No-Limit Hold’em. It was Champlin’s second gold ring of the series and his two victories earned him 100 total points and a commanding lead in the Casino Championship. Champlin would end up tacking on five more points by cashing in the Main Event.
Gooch entered the final day of the series 35 points behind Champlin. Gooch gave himself a chance to pass Champlin by making Day 2 of Event #11 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em. Gooch entered Day 2 as the chip leader with 10 players remaining and would need a first or second place finish in order to pass Champlin, assuming Champlin didn’t pick up any more points in the Event #12 turbo event. Champlin busted the turbo event short of the money and Gooch’s fate was in his own hands.
Gooch played a long and grueling final table in Event #11 and made it to heads-up play to clinch the title of the Palm Beach Kennel Club Casino Champion. He ended up finishing in second place for his largest cash of the series. His total earnings for the series came to a total of $20,005.
The Casino Championship title will send Gooch to the Global Casino Championship (previously called the National Championship). At the Global Casino Championship Gooch will be competing for a minimum $1 million prize pool and a gold bracelet.
More information and full point standings for the year-long race are available on WSOP.com.
Gooch’s PBKC's series cashes:
Event #1 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack – 421 entries – 6th place for $5,377
Event #7 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em Six Max – 214 entries – 6th place for $2,696
Event #8 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em – 195 entries – 5th place for $3,722
Event #11 - $365 No-Limit Hold’em – 164 entries – 2nd place for $8,210