Sasha Sabbaghian Wins 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit Graton Main Event

The 2024 World Series of Poker Circuit Graton Resort and Casino $1,700 no-limit hold’em main event drew 580 entries, easily surpassing the $500,000 guarantee to build a final prize pool of $877,185. After a pair of starting flights and two more days of action, Sasha Sabbaghian emerged victorious with his first WSOPC gold ring and the top prize of $168,015.

This was the largest tournament score yet for Sabbaghian, who hails from Granite Bay, California. He now has nearly $624,000 in career earnings to his name, with 81 cashes and four titles.

In addition to the money and the hardware, Sabbaghian was also awarded 840 Card Player Player of the Year points for the win. This was his second POY-qualified final-table finish of the year.

The final day began with nine players remaining and two-time bracelet winner Marco Johnson in the lead. Sabbaghian was second in chips when cards got it the air. Johnson ended up finishing sixth for $28,557. The Northern California native now has nearly $4.4 million in lifetime tournaments cashes. Johnson ran pocket eights into the pocket jacks of WSOPC ring winner Bob Mather to slide toward the bottom of the chip counts and was eliminated shortly after that.

Despite scoring that big double up, Mather was ultimately the next to fall. He got all-in with 54 trailing the 77 of Michael Persky, who won two WSOPC main events in California within a few months of each other last year. Persky’s pair held up and Mather was knocked out in fifth place ($39,067). He now has $949,000 n career earnings after this latest deep run.

Persky’s run ended when his A-8 ran into the A-Q of Mitchell Tsang. Persky earned $54,475 as the fourth-place finisher.

A classic preflop race spelled the end of Peter Yang’s tournament. He got all-in with A-10 facing the pocket sevens of Sabbaghian, who had overtaken the lead during short-handed action. Neither player improved and Yang was knocked out in third place ($77,399).

Heads-up play began with Sabbaghian holding more than a 2:1 lead over Tsang. In the final hand, Sabbaghian min-raised to 500,000 from the button with A9 and Tsang three-bet shoved with AQ from the big blind. Sabbaghian called and the board ran out K101079, bringing a nine on the river to secure the pot for Sabbaghian.

Tsang cashed for $112,010 as the runner-up.

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

Winner photo credit: WSOP / Graton Resort Casino.