Friday, April 8, 2016 12:40 AM Local Time
Maurice Hawkins Wins His Fifth Gold Ring
Event #9
No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack
Buy-In: $300 (+$65)
Total Entries: 265
Prize Pool: $79,500
Maurice Hawkins becomes the 11th player in Circuit history to win five gold rings.
Council Bluffs, Iowa (April 7, 2016) -- Maurice Hawkins
has just become the 11th player in WSOP Circuit history to win five
career gold rings. He won his fifth career gold ring Thursday night in the
monster stack event at Horseshoe Council Bluffs. This is the first time
he has won at this property on the Circuit.
"I
am just happy to win a tournament. I haven't won a tournament in a long
time and I am really happy to get the good energy going before the World
Series starts up," said Hawkins.
Hawkins
said that he intends to play a full schedule of WSOP events this summer
in Las Vegas. He said he is going to play all of the 1k's and 3k's,
some of the 5k's, maybe the PLO championship and he also may try to get
into the high roller event depending on how things are going. A gold
bracelet is still missing from Hawkins' trophy case, but he has come
close on multiple occasions. In the 2014 series he recorded a 9th place
finish and a 12th place finish. He finished 9th in the Millionaire Maker
event for $128,150 and 12th in the Little One for One Drop for $40,666.
Both of those fields had over 4,400 entries.
Hawkins
lives in West Palm Beach, Florida, but was originally from St. Louis,
Missouri. His last gold ring before today's came at the West Palm Beach
Circuit stop at the Palm Beach Kennel Club. In 2014 he won the Palm
Beach Kennel Club's signature $580 Re-Entry event. He defeated a field
of 2,531 entries to earn $183,498. That ring led to a strong summer
series and he is hoping this gold ring has the same effect for 2016
summer series.
Hawkins
made his way out to Council Bluffs, Iowa for redemption. He played the
Horseshoe Baltimore Main Event and high roller event just last week and
was unhappy with his play. He came to Iowa to win, but first
made a pit stop back home in St. Louis to see his mother and sister.
"I
am just thankful that I can play poker for a living because there are a
lot of people struggling back where I'm from," said Hawkins. "I
think that gave me a lot of clarity and I think that it will propel me
for the rest of my life."
Hawkins
doesn't play on the Circuit as much as he used to. Since he doesn't
play full-time on the WSOP Circuit and sticks to mostly playing just
Main Events, he hasn't given himself much of a chance to earn a Global
Casino Championship seat. New to this year, any gold ring winner on the
season can buy-in to the Global Casino Championship if they aren't one
of the 100 players to earn a free seat. The buy-in is $10,000 and 100%
of it goes into the prizepool. Zero dollars in rake are taken from the
tournament. Hawkins was thrilled to find out that he has this option and
intends to buy-in to the 2016 Global Casino Championship. He still has a
shot to earn a free seat, but only if he can get hot at the end of the
season.
Hawkins
is staying the weekend to play in the Main Event and go after ring
number six. The monster stack marked Hawkins' 44th career WSOP cash. Of
those 44 cashes, 28 have come on the Circuit. This victory pushes
Hawkins' career WSOP tournament earnings over the $800k mark. Of all of
the five-time gold ring winners, (Kurt Jewell, Mark Smith, Vincent
Moscati and Kevin McColgan) he has the most in WSOP tournament earnings.
--------
Event #9 was the ninth of 12 gold ring events on the WSOP Circuit
schedule at the Horseshoe Council Bluffs series. The $365 No-Limit Hold'em Monster Stack tournament
attracted 265 players generating a $79,500 prize pool. The top 27 players were paid.
Day 1 began Wednesday at 12 p.m. and lasted 20 levels. Day 2
began Thursday at 2 p.m. with 27 players remaining. The tournament
concluded at about 10:20 p.m. Thursday near the end of Level 28.
Final table results:
1st: Maurice Hawkins - $19,477 + Circuit gold ring
2nd: JP Kolb - $12,035
3rd: Doc Hanson - $8,695
4th: John Haldie - $6,399
5th: Paul Cannova - $4,794
6th: Matthew Irwin - $3,653
7th: Craig Flyger - $2,830
8th: John Ross - $2,228
9th: David Gutfreund - $1,782
Complete results can be found above under the "Results" tab.