WSOPC Event #8: £1,100 CIRCUIT MAIN EVENT

 

It took 13 hours for the £1,100 Main Event to crown its champion today in London at the Grand Room, Grosvenor House. That champion was Ji Woon Kim, a forerunner, according to his friend Tommy Kim, of the Korean wave about to take over the poker circuit…

Kim won the ring and the lion's share of the prize money, beating Argentine Jeremias Mendoza, who had a vocal rail of his own, making the end stages of the event a lively affair, even as the heftiest of prizes from the £987,460 total pool were fought over. Kim takes home £143,000 on top of the invaluable Circuit ring. You can see the full results here.

One Main over, the next just starting... 

This is only the end of the first co-Main Events as well, with Day 1A of the £3,300 Super Circuit Main Event playing out today.

There are two more Day 1 flights tomorrow and Thursday, with Day 2 on Friday, Day 3 on Saturday and the climax on Sunday.

We've already seen ElkY come and go (and hopefully he comes back), while Viktor 'Isildur' Blom made Day 2 with 133,200. 

We're hopefully going to see Ji Woon Kim as well. He said he'll be back "maybe tomorrow" for a crack at the double. 

And he was elated to win this one. 

"I'm very happy to win," Kim said after winning his ring. "I finished 47th in the WSOP Main Event in 2019, and this ring means a lot to me."

Can he bag himself another?

We'll be back tomorrow to follow the £3k Super Circuit Main through to the end. 

Jeremias Mendoza refuses to go away as he doubled up once again with    against the    of Ji Woon Kim. 

The flop brought a queen to pair up Mendoza and the rest of the board complied to keep him around for a while longer.

Jeremias Mendoza - 14,000,000
Ji Woon Kim - 36,000,000

 

Both players have rails although it's fair to say that Jeremias Mendoza's is the loudest. It's also one down after a particularly boisterous fan was sent up to the balcony. To be fair, if it wasn't for the Triton tournament still going on past the divide, it would all be fine. It's very friendly and passionate, just noisy.

Here are the chip counts at the break:

Mendoza: 17,700,000
Kim: 33,050,000

Pawel Kabut was nearly forced all in with his short stack of just 4,000,000 left as he held the    vs the    of Ji Woon Kim.

The flop was     to pair up Kabut but give Kim a slew of outs which he would connect with one of them on the   turn. The river was the   to hit the flush to set up heads up play.

Pawel Kabut was the beneficiary of a double up once again, as he jammed from the small blind this time with the    against the    of Eric Le Goff in the big blind.

The board ran out KQ424 to whiff Le Goff and give Kabut more ammunition in his stack.

Pawel Kabut - 9,400,000
Eric Le Goff - 8,000,000

Ji Woon Kim was in a hand vs Eric Le Goff on the flop of    . Kim called a bet of 550,000. He also called a 2,000,000 bet on the turn which was the  . 

The river was the  . Both players checked. Kim tabled the    winner as Le Goff mucked and surrendered the chip lead.

Ji Woon Kim - 22,300,000
Eric Le Goff - 13,000,000

 

Though the blinds are now a stratospheric 150k/300k/300k, there have not been many huge pots early in the level.  Showdowns are rarer, all in moves uncalled.

One such was that of Jeremias Mendoza, who shoved for 4,525,000 over the top of a preflop raise from Ji Woon Kim (to 625,000).  After getting a count, Kim announced that he was going to fold ace-ten.

Some disbelief noises were made around the table; he showed down exactly that. Mendoza showed ace-nine with palpable relief.

Kevin Gu has been eliminated in 6th place from the Main Event (winning £20,000) after losing one enormous pot and one microscopic one. 

The damage was done by a traditional big pair match-up - Gu held pocket queens and Eric Le Goff had pocket aces.  However, after Le Goff opened to 500,000, Kim called on the button and Gu three-bet to 3,400,000, it looked a lot like all-in and Goff announced "call" and showed his hand.

Kim got right out of the way and it turned out that Gu hadn't shoved after all, but hD left himself with one and one tenth big blind - 275,000.

The floor said to Le Goff, "You can only check, call or fold." and Gu decided to check it down. 

Two hands later, Gu called preflop for most of his stack, throwing in the last 25,000 chip on A35 flop with   .  Jeremias Mendoza's    suited finished him off.

Kevin Gu - Eliminated

Action folded round to Eric Le Goff in the small blind and he called.

Gianluca Speranza thought he was safe to shove sixes but he was snapped and Le Goff showed   .

Le Goff might have been a bit peeved to see himself up against a pair but any frustration dissolved quickly as the board ran out      .

It gave Le Goff the nut flush and a full double up.

Watch the video at PokerOrg.