KYLE CARTWRIGHT WINS MAIN EVENT AT TUNICA

 Kyle Cartwright best 639 player field to secure ring number eight and a GCC seat.

January 28, 2019 (Tunica) - The latest ring winner in the World Series of Poker Circuit is Kyle Cartwright, who has taken down the Tunica Main Event for $198,451! This first place finish adds another ring to his already stacked resume, now having eight in total, with almost $1,750,000 in career WSOP cashes. He will also be locking up a 2019 Global Casino Championship seat, on top of all that cold hard cash.

A total of 639 entries came together for the Tunica main event, and just eight of the registration slips sold, made it to Day 3. Cartwright started the day third on the leader board, but managed to start stacking chips early in the day, winning pot after pot, a little at a time. He really took off after eliminating Damjan Radanov during a blind on blind hand, taking down the pot with a higher kicker for his ace.

Cartwright played aggressive small-ball poker through most of the day, always getting in with the best of it and folding when he had the worst. He made a very minimal amount of mistakes, and even those were made up for by his reading ability that was on full display, during the final day of this tournament.

The win meant a lot for Carwright, "I've been travelling now for a while, so anytime you get a win, i mean they are so hard to win, these tournaments". This is his 72nd cash, eighth ring, and fourth main event victory, but there was still room for one more first for Cartwright, "This is the first time she (His Mom) has watched me play live poker, It was great having my family here!" 

The Arlington,TN, native took second in the Main Event at Harrah's Cherokee (North Carolina), in November and just earlier this week finished as the runner-up in the $600 Big Blind Ante, here in Tunica. " Man, I am feeling great! I was on a string of seconds there for a minute, and its nice to get a win"

One person that he seemed to have a read on was Steve Klein, catching him in multiple hands with at least a few fingers in the cookie jar. The first two days of the tournament apparently were not quite as easy playing against Klein says Cartwright, " That guy heads-up man, he owned me for two days straight I couldn't beat him! So i thought for sure in the final hand that was a flip, that he for sure would get it, but somehow i came through and won"

Klein would out up a heated battle with Cartwright for as long as possible, but eventually would need to find a spot to double up. The moment came and the two were all in on a classic flip, sailboats for Klein and ace ten for Cartwright. Klein managed to fade the first four cards to hit the board, but as so many before him, he would fall to the inevitable river card, and Cartwright would be crowned the latest circuit main event champion.

The tournament started on Friday, grabbing 243 entries on Day 1A. Cartwright would be the biggest stack of the 30 that bagged by the end of the night. The second starting flight pulled in 396 entries and Johnny Landreth emerged as the Day 1B big stack of the 77 that advanced, as well as the overall leader heading into Day 2.The second day played 10, 60-minute levels of play, before tagging and bagging for the final day. Just eight returned for the final day, and it was Jim Naifeh leading the way. After four levels of play, only two remained, and it would take two hours for Cartwright to take down Klein for his eighth ring.

That wraps it up for the January stop in Tunica of the 2018-19 WSOP circuit season. There will be a second stop in Tunica, starting April 25 until May 6, and as always will have a large turn out of players.

Official Final Table Results:

1st - Kyle Cartwright - $198,451
2nd - Steve Klein - $122,802
3rd - Johnny Landreth - $90,071
4th - Jim Naifeh - $66,982
5th - Darren Martin - $50,486
6th - Damjan Radanov - $38,559
7th - Jon Bennett - $29,836
8th - Joseph Hebert - $23,389
9th - Michael Sanders - $14,928