At just 22 years of age, Justin Carey wins his second career WSOP Circuit ring
26 August 2019 (Connecticut) - After just one year, Justin Carey has won his second World Series of Poker Circuit ring at the young age of 22. He pocketed $143,293 for his biggest career score, more than doubling his lifetime earnings.
Carey is a poker player from Somerville, MA and only logged his first tournament result in January of 2018. His first Circuit ring came at Foxwoods exactly one year ago in Event #6: $600 No-Limit Hold’em for $18,313, followed by an 8th place finish in the Circuit Main Event for $19,657.
“It’s awesome. I feel like I played really, really well the entire tournament. On Day 2 I had a couple bumps where I lost some really big pots. I just stayed focused and just played the best I could,” explained Carey.
Coming in to the final table on Day 3, Carey sat fifth in chips but had a healthy 38 big blinds. “I thought I played almost perfect at this final table,” said Carey. When talking about his success, Carey credits the company he keeps. “I’ve made friends with a lot of poker players that are better than me, and they’ve helped me a lot with my game.”
It’s clear the young Circuit champion has a bright future ahead of him in the poker world, and has clear goals. “I guess it’s a bracelet, right? That’s what it’s supposed to be?” smiled Carey.
Carey came in to heads-up play against Maurice Hawkins, the all-time Circuit champion with 13 rings, with an almost five-to-one lead. Hawkins chipped away and took a big lead himself, but Carey eventually got the job done. “I just wanted to crush Maurice, really bad,” admitted Carey.
In the final hand, Carey shoved all in with ace-eight and was snapped off by Hawkins with ace-king. The flop came eight-high and the rest was history, ending a long and hard-fought heads-up battle.
The Main Event brought in 468 entries, and the top 71 players made the money. Familiar faces finishing in the money included Maurice Hawkins (2nd), Andrew Ostapchenko (4th), Matt Zola (26th), Michael Cervantes (28th), Matthew Wantman (29th), Stanley Lee (34th), Mike Azzaro (38th), Vinny Pahuja (42nd), Dan DiZenzo (46th), Mukul Pahuja (48th), Joe Heinzmann (54th), David Paredes (55th), Roland Israelashvili (59th), and Steven Tabb (69th).
Foxwoods Main Event Final Table Results:
1st place: Justin Carey - $143,293
2nd place: Maurice Hawkins - $88,557
3rd place: David Plotkin - $64,663
4th place: Andrew Ostapchenko - $47,859
5th place: Dan Chalifour - $35,947
6th place: Gregory Nerenberg - $27,297
7th place: Joe Rudy - $21,058
8th place: Ralph Macri - $16,449
9th place: Sean Thomson - $13,079
FULL RESULTS
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JUSTIN CAREY’S OFFICIAL WSOP PLAYER PROFILE
OFFICIAL WINNER PHOTO