After a fast-paced final day of play that took just four hours to complete, Michael Pearson secured his second WSOP Circuit Harveys Lake Tahoe Main Event win and his second gold ring from the series.
Pearson was one of ten players who returned to the host venue at noon on Monday to play down to a champion. The now two-time WSOP Circuit Main Event winner had his ups and downs throughout the tournament – he was down to just four blinds at one point with 13 contenders for the title left – but he came back to eventually capture the title.
Pearson earned $133,285 in prize money and a shiny gold ring for his victory last night. The player came out atop 424 entries. It is also important to note that he won that same event in 2016.
The final day of the WSOP Circuit Main Event at Harveys Lake Tahoe began with ten players who were vying for the title and the first-place prize. And the pack of the final ten survivors included seasoned poker pros with millions in live tournament earnings and various poker accomplishments.
As mentioned above action unfolded pretty quickly and it was within four hours after the start of play when the name of the champion became known.
Final Table Action
It was Charlie Coultas who led the final ten into the tournament’s finale. The player started Day 3 with a significant chip lead over his remaining opponents. As for Pearson, he was not particularly happy with his seat draw as WSOP Circuit regular Nick Pupillo was seated right on his left.
The tournament’s champion said after his win last night that “Nick has already busted me twice this year”, but he tried to be patient. Patience paid him well, as it can be seen.
Down to four players, Pearson was the short stack. However, he quickly regained momentum and it could be said that he never really looked back from that point. The eventual champion doubled up through fourth-place finisher Joe Brindle. He then busted Coultas in third place to enter the heads-up match against Jeremy Kottler as the chip leader.
Pearson had 7.5 million in chips at that point against Kottler’s 5 million. Pearson kept chipping away at Kottler’s stack until the latter had nothing else to do but to head to the payout desk for his consolation prize of $82,379.
As mentioned earlier, Pearson took down the 2016 edition of the Harveys Lake Tahoe Main Event. Back then, the player bested a field of 475 entries for a first-place prize of $153,191 and his first WSOP Circuit gold ring.
Of his strategy at this year’s edition of the tournament, Pearson said last night that he just tried to win every time he was all in. That strategy played more than well as it is namely him whom we can see posing with the gold ring that goes to every champion to every WSOP Circuit event.
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