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Thursday, December 10, 2015 3:18 PM Local Time
Alex Masek Wins Record-Extending Ninth Circuit Ring
California poker professional wins $365 No Limit Hold’em and earns ninth career WSOP Circuit ring to extend his lead on the all-time ring list.
Los Angeles, CA. (December 10, 2015) — Winning a poker tournament usually results in a fist-pump and some sort of celebration before smiling ear-to-ear for a photo.
This wasn’t the case for Alex Masek, however.
Masek topped a field of 143 players on Thursday afternoon to win his record-extending ninth career WSOP Circuit ring in the $365 No Limit Hold’em at the Bicycle Casino, taking home $12,000 in the process. But it wasn’t celebrations and smiles for the 30-year-old professional poker player after the final card was dealt. It was a few minutes of somber thought about his bad call and suckout on the final hand of the tournament.
Masek’s eighth ring came in March of 2014 at Lumiere Place in St. Louis. Since then, he has had many close calls for his next title with two fourth place finishes, a third place, and four runner-up spots, including just missing out on his first bracelet, falling to Loni Harwood in last season’s National Championship at Cherokee.
He was determined to finish the job this time.
“When we were heads-up, I was thinking to myself that I’m not going to be results oriented and if I get second I can’t be disappointed,” said Masek after his win. “But I have to be completely happy with my play and I have to make every right decision. So I got lucky on the last hand, but I need to make every right decision and I was actually very disappointed in myself for making the bad call there and that’s why I decided to walk around for a couple minutes.”
Masek defeated Erick Lee heads-up to take home his ninth Circuit title. On the last hand he is referring to, he flopped top pair against Lee’s bottom two-pair. Masek bet and called a shove on the turn. He needed help, but found a third ace on the river to eliminate Lee in second.
“I needed to kind of forget about that and think about the fact that I won it. I wasn’t happy with myself. I don’t like making the wrong decision for all of the chips heads-up.”
After a few minutes of walking around, Masek cleared his mind, moved on and had a smile on his face, realizing what he accomplished.
“It definitely doesn’t get old,” said Masek about winning rings. “The last three or four times I got heads-up, I lost, so this one maybe actually means ore to me than any of my other ones just to be able to finally get back into this spot and win.”
Masek might be unknown to some of the more casual poker fans, but he has amassed one of the most impressive resumes in Circuit history. Along with his nine titles, He’s amassed $607,288 over his 47 career Circuit cashes.
Other players that have had his type of success on the Circuit have moved on and started playing some of the bigger events. That isn’t Masek’s plan. With fiancé at home and two dogs in Irvine, CA, the former University of San Diego law student doesn’t plan on heading all over the place to play in bigger events.
“For me for the most part, it’s just about that I don’t like traveling that much for poker,” said Masek. “I just play everything in L.A. Whether that is a good $300 or $500 or $1,000 tournament here or the LAPC main, which I’ve played the last five years, or the Legends of Poker main here. For me, it’s just about everything that is good in L.A. I’m going to play and then Vegas in the summer.
“I don’t see myself traveling too much. I’m engaged now and we have a couple puppies, so I got enough on my hands at home.”
Day 1 wrapped up in the early hours of Thursday morning with Masek near the bottom of the chip counts with seven players remaining. Masek came out of the proverbial gates quick on Thursday afternoon though, and quickly propelled himself back into contention.
“I was actually second in chips with about 20 minutes to go at the end of the night yesterday with like 300,000 and then lost every pot,” said Masek about the end of Day 1. “I won the first three hands today and that pretty much put me second din chips. After that, I won pretty much every flip which was nice. I didn’t really get short again after that and I won the flips that I needed to.” Thursday, December 10, 2015 2:17 PM Local Time
After the elimination of Jason Tulloss in third place, Alex Masek is heads-up with Erick Lee for his record-extending ninth Circuit ring. He starts out the heads-up battle with the chip lead over Lee.
Alex Masek - 850,000
Erick Lee - 515,000
Blinds are 8,000/16,000 for the next 20 minutes. The runner-up receives $7,425 and the winner takes home $12,000.
Thursday, December 10, 2015 2:13 AM Local Time
143 players made their way to the Bicycle Casino for Day 1 of the $365 No Limit Hold'em on Wednesday afternoon. After the scheduled 21 levels of play, those 143 were trimmed to the final seven players with Erick Lee holding a big chip lead over the rest of the field with 524,000.
While Lee is the one with the lead, Alex Masek is the one trying to make history. Masek is the leader on the all-time ring leaderboard with eight career rings. He is currently short on chips with 110,000, but could extend his record with a win to earn his ninth career ring.
The final seven players have guaranteed themselves a payday of at least $1,730, but everybody has their sights set on the first place prize of $12,000. A full list of chip counts can be found in the reports tab above.
Thursday, December 10, 2015 12:40 AM Local Time
The final table of event #7 has been reached and Erick Lee is pacing the field, leading the pack with 346,000. While Lee has the most chips, it's Alex Masek who is trying to continue to make Circuit history.
Masek is in the middle of the pack in the chip counts, but only eight players stand between him and his record extending ninth Circuit ring.
At this point, everybody is guaranteed at least a cash of $1,085. Here is a look at the seating arrangements and chip counts of the final table.
Seat 1: Steve Bulut - 38,000
Seat 2: Evan Muschetto - 124,000
Seat 3: Ronny Mirel - 138,000
Seat 4: Baruch Thaler - 235,000
Seat 5: Erick Lee 346,000
Seat 6: Greg Hoeschen - 64,000
Seat 7: Alex Masek - 201,000
Seat 8: Roger Pambeta - 217,000
Seat 9: Jason Tulloss - 83,000
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 3:56 PM Local Time
Late registration is closed for the seventh event of the series and the prizepool has been released. There are 143 players in the field and the top 15 will earn a cash.
A min-cash is worth $725 and gradually increase to the $12,000 first place prize money that comes with a Circuit ring. Here's a look at the detailed payouts:
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 2:14 PM Local Time
Level 5 has just begun in the $365 No Limit Hold'em and the players are inching closer to their second break of the day and late registration closing. Here's a look at the structure for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, December 9, 2015 2:13 AM Local Time
The WSOP Circuit at the Bicycle Casino moves past its halfway point with its seventh of 12 events starting on Wednesday at noon. It's a $365 No Limit Hold'em event and here are the details:
- Players start with 10,000 in tournament chips
- There are 10-minute breaks after every three levels and a 45-minute dinner break at the completion of level 12
- Late registration is open until the beginning of level 7, about 3:20 p.m.
- Day 1 ends at the completion of level 21, about 1:45 a.m.
- The first 12 levels are 30 minutes each
- The last 9 levels after dinner are 40 minutes each
- Day 2 begins at 1 p.m. with 50 minute levels