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Friday, April 4, 2025 4:32 AM Local Time (about 1 day and 18 hours ago)
The WSOPC at Elgin has seen its first event come and go. Event #1: $400 Opener Event drew out a total of 474 entrants over the course of 12 levels of late registration, with only 72 of them grabbing a piece of the $156,420 prize pool. It would be around 3:20 am before the last card was dealt and all of the tournament's many chips would be in the hands of one man.
It would seem like fate that the two men heads up for the title would have had a significant encounter earlier in the tournament on the bubble. Briant Harold Alavez Lopez was seated next to George Pappas with Lopez holding the overall chip lead of the 73 left at the time while Pappas was a significant top 5 stack. The two would involve themselves in the biggest pot in the tournament up to that point where Pappas would jam turn after Lopez bet and Lopez would quickly fold, ceding the chip lead of the tournament to Pappas.
Their second encounter would see the reverse happen as after a lengthy final table battle, Lopez would outkick Pappas heads up to take down his first ever WSOPC ring! After being down to the shortest stack three-handed, Lopez would battle back in a rollercoaster of a short-handed match to take down the title.
Though this was his first ever WSOPC cash, Lopez is far from unexperienced on the poker tournament felt. This score now puts him in the top 50 of the Mexico all-time money list as he holds many cashes and wins from the Americas in his Hendon Mob results. The win meant quite a bit to him as immediately after, he called his family who were up in their beds very late and excited to hear him talk about his win. He also embraced his friend on the rail who had been watching a significant chunk of the final table.
With this win, Lopez also earns his way into the WSOPC 2025 Tournament of Champions out in Commerce Casino in Los Angeles, California.
Final Table Payouts
- Briant Harold Alavez Lopez - $29,546
- Georg Pappas - $19,691
- Matt Buhler - $13,694
- Nathan Ma - $9,711
- Joseph Saltanovitz - $7,024
- Patrick Kim - $5,185
- Casper Jensen - $3,907
- Todd Larsen - $3,007
- Nick Francione - $2,365
- Chris Thiel - $1,901
That will conclude our coverage of the WSOPC at Grand Victoria Casino today. Be sure to check back in with Poker.Org to see who else wins rings this week.
Thursday, April 3, 2025 7:00 AM Local Time (about 2 days and 16 hours ago)
After some time on the east coast and some time on the East Coast in Verona, and a series in Las Vegas which has just wrapped up, the WSOPC is splitting the geographic difference and returning to Illinois at Grand Victoria in Elgin, Illinois! A grand total of 18 events will be played over the next week and a half with all of your favorite Midwestern legends coming out to play.
Today kicks off the first event of the stop as players will be gifted with Event #1: $400 No-Limit Hold’em 30k Opener. Last time around it was Wisconsin poker regular Robert Keating who took down his first ring for $34,374. He will be looking to defend his title among new and old faces likely to populate the basement on the boat.
This season the WSOPC ring race has been an exciting race to follow as the four leaders all exchange blows with each other while adding to their overall tallies. Currently it is Ari Engel who leads, but time will tell to see if he comes out to this stop to add to his overall ring total.
Players will sit down with 30,000 in starting chips with blind levels lasting 25 minutes each. After every four levels, there will be a 15-minute break. Registration will remain open until the beginning of Level 13 and after Level 16, there will be a 45-minute dinner break. When players return after that, play will continue until a winner is crowned.
Stay tuned to Poker.Org to see who puts a ring on their finger.
Wednesday, April 2, 2025 3:52 PM Local Time (about 3 days and 7 hours ago)