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Saturday, December 12, 2015 10:59 PM Local Time
Local realtor wins final preliminary event of the series and takes home $24,625 along with his first Circuit ring.
Los Angeles, CA. (December 13, 2015) — Mark Peckham earned his second five-figure score of his poker career and won his first Circuit ring on Saturday night by taking down the $365 Monster Stack No Limit Hold’em.
He topped a field of 357 over two days over No Limit Hold’em and defeated Mark Nasser heads-up to win the final preliminary event of the WSOP Circuit at the Bicycle Casino and take home $24,625.
“It feels great right now,” said Peckham after the win. “I can’t complain at all.”
Peckham doesn’t play a ton of live tournaments. Most of his time spent on the felt is playing both online cash games and tournaments, as well as live cash games in the Los Angeles area. Given his background, it isn’t surprising that his two major tournament scores both came in Monster Stack events.
Peckham’s first major score came at the 2014 WSOP $1,500 Monster Stack when he finished 19th for $50,202. The 30-year-old Upland, CA native feels the deeper stacks in the monster stack events give him an edge over the field.
“I think with all the cash games I play, I think that comes into play,” said Peckham. “I like the deeper stack and the idea of having more play throughout the tournament.”
Peckham came into the unofficial final table of 10 in the middle of the pack and quickly picked up a big hand.
“I got really lucky 10-handed,” said Peckham. “I picked up a kings and there was a raise and a re-raise. A guy moved all in and he had jacks, so that put me up to 1.5 million.”
Sending home Dmitry Kim in 10th place put Peckham near the top of the leaderboard with Wendy Freedman. He was able to ride that momentum all the way to a ring.
“I knew my ICM [Independent Chip Model] based on the table was really strong,” said Peckham. “I think Wendy had like 2.2 [million] at the time, so I just kind of sat there and let everybody else knock each other out and it wasn’t until the final five that I started making some moves.”
As the table got shorter, Peckham continued to chip up and he got heads-up with Mark Nasser. Their heads-up battle was a see-saw battle that watched the chip lead sway back and forth for over two hours before Peckham could finish the job.
“It was a grind with that guy,” said Peckham about Nasser. “I had him on the ropes like three times and all three times he came back.
Saturday, December 12, 2015 2:20 AM Local Time
There was a robust turnout for the final preliminary event of the WSOP Circuit at the Bicycle Casino. 357 players put up the $365 to take their shot in the second monster stack no limit hold'em of the series, which generated a prizepool of $107,100 and blew away the $75,000 guarantee on it.
After the scheduled 21 levels of play, the 357 was trimmed down to the final 22 with Mark Leblanc leading the way. Leblanc bagged the chip lead on Friday night with 875,000 in chips. Cards get back in the air for Day 2 at 1 p.m. on Saturday to play down to a winner.
Complete chip counts can be found in the reports tab above.
Friday, December 11, 2015 11:13 PM Local Time
With 42 players left and 36 earning a cash, Wendy Freedman is sitting with 145,000 with blinds of 2,500/5,000 and a 500 ante. She is currently leading the Casino Championship race at the Bike. A cash in this event gets her at least an extra 2.5 points to extend her lead over Alan Myerson, who is in second place.
With two runner-up finishes in earlier events, she has 75 points and a 15 point lead over Myerson. Myerson is not alive in this Monster stack and by outlasting a few more eliminations for a cash, she can extend her lead to at least 17.5 points with just two events left on the schedule. She could all but lock up the title of Casino Champion with a deep run in this event.
Friday, December 11, 2015 4:52 PM Local Time
Late registration has closed and the prizepool information has been released. The field was filled with 357 players, generating a $107,100 prizepool, far surpassing the $75,000 guarantee that the tournament carried.
The top 36 players earn a cash. A min-cash is worth $555 and gradually climbs to the $24,625 up top. Here is a look at the final table payouts:
Friday, December 11, 2015 2:40 PM Local Time
The field is inching towards their second break and the closing of late registration is on the horizon. Here's a detailed look at the structure for the rest of the day:
Friday, December 11, 2015 8:53 AM Local Time
The last preliminary event on the schedule at this stop kicks off on Friday at noon. It is a $365 Monster Stack No Limit Hold'em and it carries a $75,000 guaranteed prizepool. Here are the details:
- Players start with 20,000 in tournament chips
- There are 10-minute breaks after every three levels and a 45-minute dinner break after level 12
- Late registration is open until the beginning of level 7, about 3:20 p.m.
- Day 1 concludes at the end of level 21, about 1:30 a.m.
- The first 12 levels are 30 minutes
- The last 9 levels of the day are 40 minutes
- This is a two-day event
- Day 2 starts on Saturday at 1 p.m.