Alex Lipkin Takes Top Honors At The World Series Of Poker Circuit Graton Main Event

Alex Lipkin emerged victorious in the World Series of Poker Circuit main event Graton Casino and Resort on Feb. 24. In addition to earning his first WSOPC gold ring, he also secured the largest payday of his poker career: $162,520.

“One time doesn’t prove anything, but I’m going to be more confident in a tournament knowing I’ve done this before. Because before this I only had two deep runs in the WSOP, and I didn’t play many tournaments. I’m not going to consider myself a great player now since I won one tournament. I’m still an amateur, but I don’t get easily intimidated at the poker table, even by experienced guys,” said Lipkin after the win. “Hopefully I know what I’m doing, but I’m still just an amateur.”

Lipkin was cruising near the top of the chip counts for the majority of the tournament, so one of the questions touched on his journey through the tournament starting on Day 1. “I’ve had that before in some tournaments. I was running really well the first couple of levels, the first couple of hours; and usually that’s not the greatest time to run well. That’s why I was telling myself, ’don’t get crazy and stupid and think you’re invincible.’ So I held back, and I kind of tried to play stack preservation so I don’t lose this big-stack advantage,” said Lipkin.

The interview ended with a discussion about his last battle against Michael Lin, and Lipkin offered these thoughts on the final match that lasted for more than two hours. “When we got to short-handed, I don’t have a lot of experience short-handed … but the cards kind of played themselves, and I found good cards when I needed to. I picked up pocket kings when two players were all in. Heads up was kind of a battle, I found a flush on the turn but he was a really good player and kept chipping up. He had a big lead and we decided to take a break, and during that break I decided that I wasn’t aggressive enough, and I started playing aggressive with the worst hands. I got even, and then I got lucky, he had eights against queens. What are you going to do?”

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em poker tournament featured two starting flights which collectively drew 558 entries. That built a final prize pool worth $845,370, easily surpassing the guarantee of $500,000. The top 85 players all secured a min-cash worth $3,429, and that’s how many returned for Day 2. Familiar faces that made a deep run in the tournament included Lily Kiletto (10th), Lawrence Chow (12th), Jasthi Kumar (21st), and Matt Wantman (25th).

The final table began with Lipkin sitting second in chips at the start of play. Saad Aljoher was then taken out by Lipkin in ninth place, and he kept the momentum rolling by taking out Alan Capurro in eighth. A lineup of bustouts including Yoh Lee (seventh), Antonio Ma (sixth), and Brendan Buckner (fifth), and Brett Murray (fourth) happened in quick succession after that while Lipkin stayed out of the way but kept accumulating chips.

Third place went to two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson, and Lin scored the knockout to take a better than 2:1 chip advantage into the final. Lipkin scored a double to grab that same advantage for himself, and then the stacks evened up between the final two players.

That’s just about where the chip stacks stood when the final hand transpired with Lipkin opening to 500,000 before Lin went all in. Lipkin called to cover with pocket queens, and they were ahead of the pocket eights held by Lin. The board bricked out to send Lin to the rail in second place, and he stacked up $108,149 thanks to the deep run to take his total earnings above $217,000.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

The next WSOP Circuit tournament series is already running at Horseshoe Baltimore in Maryland with the Main Event taking place from Feb. 27 to Mar. 3.

Photo credits: Graton Resort & Casino, WSOP.