West Palm Beach, FL (February 17, 2014)— Ever since poker started booming in the state of Florida, it seems like it is the East Coast grinders who shine the brightest in the Sunshine State. Players from New York and New jersey venture South for the winter seeking warm weather and end up leaving with big paydays. The latest in this line of champions? Ruslan "Russ" Dykshteyn, who triumphed over a 658-entry field in the $1,675 buy-in Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event to pocket a $202,335 payday, his first Circuit ring, and a seat into the 2014 WSOP National Championship.
Dykshteyn is a semi-professional poker player who usually sticks to cash games. "I hardly ever play tournaments," he admitted shortly after his win. The Brooklyn, NY resident only ended up in Florida because, "I just came down to visit friends." That's the only reason he played this event. He's usually tearing up the cash games in Atlantic City and rarely plays tournaments. He has one large tournament score prior to today, which is a third place finish in the 2012 Borgata Spring Poker Open Championship, good for $112,950.
The tournament novice had some tough competition at a final table which featured a couple of WSOP Circuit ring holders. Joe McKeehen has two rings, one of which is a Main Event Championship ring from Caesar's Atlantic City in 2013. He finished fourth in Palm Beach. The other ring winner, Luke Graham, also has an impressive track record at Palm Beach, as he made the final table of this event two years running, taking sixth in 2013 and eighth this time around. Throw in regular players Vincent Maglio and Josh Kay and you had a tough final line-up.
Even with the stiff competition, the final table breezed by in just a few hours, leaving only Maglio and Dykshteyn vying for the title. Once play got heads-up, it was over in a flash. It took just 15 minutes for Dykshteyn to rally from a chip deficit, take the chip lead, and end the tournament. Maglio had the chip lead going in with about 7.2 million to Dykshteyn's
~6 million. A couple of hands
later, Dykshteyn has reversed their positions and had 7.7 million to Maglio's
5.5 million. Then the final,
fatal, hand played out.
In this event, Dykshteyn bested a field of 658
entrants to earn the lion's share of the $987,000 prize pool. The final 72
players got paid and it was a packed field. Mukul Pahuja, who has nearly $1.9 million in tournament
earnings, just missed the unofficial final table, busting out 11th for $15,220.
He followed Aaron Massey to the
rail after Massey busted in 12th place ($15,220). Massey has over $1.5 million in earnings. The last woman sitting in this event was Claudia Crawford.
She finished 15th for $12,387. WSOP bracelet holders who also finished in the money were Josh
Arieh, 17th ($10,206); Robert Cheung, $56th ($3,010), and David Diaz, 62nd ($3,010).
In
addition to the prize money and gold ring, Dykshteyn also earns a seat in the
season-ending National Championship to be held this spring.
Next up on the Circuit schedule is a trip to Sin City where the ring action will get underway at Caesars Palace starting on Thursday, February 20th. Until then, here are the results from the final table of the Palm Beach Kennel Club Main Event:
|
PLACE
|
PLAYER
|
CITY / STATE / COUNTRY
|
CASH EARNED
|
|
1
|
Ruslan Dykshteyn
|
BROOKLYN, NY, US
|
$202,335
|
|
2
|
Vincent Maglio
|
REVERE, MA, US
|
$125,201
|
|
3
|
Richard Kirsch
|
Ft. Lauderdale, FL, US
|
$91,830
|
|
4
|
Joseph McKeehen
|
North Wales, PA, US
|
$68,291
|
|
5
|
Ian Ohara
|
Boca Raton, FL, US
|
$51,472
|
|
6
|
George Lampert
|
NAPLES, FL, US
|
$39,312
|
|
7
|
Josh Kay
|
WEST BLOOMFIELD, MI, US
|
$30,419
|
|
8
|
Luke Graham
|
PORT ST. LUCIE, FL, US
|
$23,846
|
|
9
|
Fadi Massaad
|
Austin, TX, US
|
$18,931
|