Event #12: $365 No-Limit Hold'em (30-minutes levels)

Event #12
No-Limit Hold'em (30-minute levels)
Buy-In: $300 (+$65)
Total Entries: 228
Prize Pool: $68,400

Daniel Pearlman wins his first career WSOP gold ring and $17k.

LAS VEGAS (February 28, 2017) -- South Florida poker pro Daniel Pearlman has won Monday's one-day event at the Rio Circuit for his first career WSOP cash and first WSOP Circuit gold ring. Pearlman defeated a 228-player field in just under 16 hours to take home the top prize of $17,103.

Pearlman is a cash game grinder from Hollywood, Florida. His main game is Pot-Limit Omaha cash, but sometimes dabbles in daily tournaments or a few bigger ones when a series is in town. Until recently, Pearlman's main focus was cash games. A recent tournament heater has gotten him focusing a lot more on tournaments.

Pearlman's tournament heater began from him staking a friend. Two months ago Pearlman put his friend into a $150 tournament. His friend went on to win the tournament and Pearlman received half of the $20k top prize. Then last month in the same tournament he staked his friend again, but this time bought himself into the tournament too. He ended up chopping the tournament for about $11k and caught the tournament bug in the process.

Pearlman's heater continued as he went on to chop another tournament five ways about a week later. The heater moved from Florida to Las Vegas. Pearlman has been playing all week around town in Vegas and this WSOP victory was the second win of the week for him. Pearlman said he won a PLO tournament earlier in the week.

"For me to just recently jump into the tournament scene and to win a ring in one of the first ring events I have ever played is very exciting," said Pearlman.

The Rio Circuit is coming to a close, but Pearlman is not ready to end the heater. Pearlman is planning to head to Horseshoe Hammond with fellow south Florida pro and six-time Circuit gold ring winner John Holley for the Chicago Poker Classic, which begins in early March. He does not know where he is headed to after that, but would like to continue to pursue the tournament scene somewhere along the east coast.

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Event #12 was the twelfth of 13 gold ring events on the WSOP Circuit schedule at the Rio. The $365 no-limit hold'em (30-minute levels) tournament attracted 228 players generating a $68,400 prize pool. The top 24 players were paid.

The tournament was a one-day event. Cards went in the air at 11 a.m. on Monday and the last river card hit at about 2:50 a.m. Tuesday midway through Level 27.

Final table:

1st: Daniel Pearlman - $17,103 + Circuit gold ring
2nd: Cliff Hart - $10,569
3rd: Jordan Feliciano - $7,692
4th: Jared Hemingway - $5,689
5th: Jason Johnson - $4,273
6th: Ryan Luna - $3,259
7th: Joseph Wentzlaff - $2,524
8th: Loren Camp - $1,984
9th: Karah Sorensen - $1,582

Complete results can be found above under the "Results" tab.

Cliff Hart finished runner-up for $10,569. This was the Las Vegas local's first career WSOP cash.

Jared Hemingway has been eliminated in 4th place for $5,689. This was Hemingway's 10th career WSOP cash and it pushes his WSOP tournament earnings over the $30k mark.

Ryan Luna has been eliminated in 6th place for $3,259. This was Luna's second cash of the series. He also cashed in the Monster Stack.

Loren Camp is headed to the payout desk in 8th place to collect $1,984. This was Camp's third career WSOP cash and first on the Circuit.

Bryan Sharp has been eliminated in 10th place for $1,280. This marked Sharp's second cash of the series.

The tournament has reached the money with 16 minutes left in Level 17: 2,000/4,000 with a 500 ante.

The final 24 players are all guaranteed a minimum payout of $631.