Monday, September 5, 2016 10:15 PM Local Time
St. Louis poker pro wins Casino Champion title with milestone ring win.
Las Vegas, NV (September 6, 2016) — Josh Turner only played a four events at the World Series of Poker Circuit at Planet Hollywood. He cashed in three of them and ended the series with authority by winning his fifth career ring in the $365 no-limit hold’em turbo, the last event of the series.
Turner took home $12,516 for besting 149 players in the event, but more importantly, the win gave him the Casino Champion title for the stop. For the third straight year, Turner earned an automatic entry into the Global Casino Championship.
“It feels good,” said Turner with a smile. “I played the re-entry and went pretty deep in that. I played one other even and then took the rest of the series off. My girl came in and we just did Vegas stuff. She left last night and then I just jumped in this.”
The race for Casino Champion was tight all series long, with the lead changing hands a couple times between Kindah Sakkal and Ben Palmer. There were several people who were within a few points of Sakkal and everybody had their eyes on them to possibly overtake the Washington native and earn an automatic bid into the Global Casino Championship.
With his two previous cashes, Turner earned 25 points and was 50 points behind Sakkal when the event started. He wasn’t even thinking about a possible Casino Champion title until the later stages of the tournament.
“I didn’t know that I had a chance to win the Casino Championship until we were down to like three tables,” said the St. Louis native. “At the final table, once I realized I had to win, I just went after them for that extra $10,000 [seat]. I think I probably busted like six of the people.”
The win gave Turner 50 points, which put both him and Sakkal tied atop the leaderboard with 75 points each. The tiebreaker is money earned and Turner just barely edged out Sakkal for the title, earning just over $900 more than her throughout the series.
If Turner didn’t take the middle part of the series off to be with his girlfriend, he might have been able to run away with the Casino Championship. But he had good reason to take some time away from the tables.
His girlfriend became his fiancé.
“We got engaged in the beginning of June, but we’ve been keeping it under wraps,” said Turner. “We told our families, but that was it. She came out this weekend and we made it official. I took her up into the Eiffel Tower and got on one knee and gave her a ring.
“That’s why I took off the $5k, the $580, and in the main event I only played flight A. I didn’t want to play on Saturday, so I only fired one bullet. I sacrificed a little bit of EV, but it’s all good. It’s plus life EV.”
The Casino Championship win gives Turner the opportunity to spend more time with his soon-to-be wife instead of grinding points towards qualifying for the Global. With his seat already locked up, he doesn’t plan on playing as many stops and have more of a life away from poker.
“It’s nice to have it locked up so I don’t have to grind as much as some of the other players,” said Turner. “I’m trying to be more balanced. Two years ago, I hit a lot of stops. Last year I only hit five stops. This year, I might only hit like three.”
Turner’s engagement is just another his continual upswing. He’s been on a tear over the last several months. Turner, who is nearing the $1 million mark in live tournament earnings, won Casino Champion last April at the Horseshoe in Council Bluffs to secure his spot in the first installment of the Global Casino Championship.
He took that seat and ran with it, finishing third for $150,851 in Cherokee just a few weeks ago. A couple days later at the same venue, he finished sixth in the first Circuit main event of the season for $47,215.
Regardless of how much money he wins, his motivation is always about the hardware.
“I’m not really playing for the money,” he said. “I mean, I use the money. It’s nice, but I’m just playing for the rings and the bracelets. That’s my goal. I’m trying to get more and catch up with Ari [Engel].”
Monday, September 5, 2016 8:02 PM Local Time
The $365 No-Limit Hold'em Turbo is down to its final 10 players and there is a slight pause in the action as they redraw for seats at the unofficial final table.
They are about to start level 20 with binds of 4,000/8,000 and a 1,000 ante. Here is a look at the seating arrangement and chip counts:
Seat 1: Jason Emanuel - 160,000
Seat 2: Lynnore Goldfarb - 106,000
Seat 3: John Roberston - 48,000
Seat 4: Robin Schaefer - 70,000
Seat 5: Jamie Kerstetter - 70,000
Seat 6: Ronald Keren - 92,000
Seat 7: Charles "Woody" Moore - 42,000
Seat 8: Shawn Fakhimi - 526,000
Seat 9: Josh Turner - 209,000
Seat 10: Denise Pratt - 165,000
If Kerstetter, Moore, or Tuner win the event, they will overtake Kindah Sakkal for Casino Champion at this stop.