Elsewhere at the PCA, the $25k High Roller is down to its final eight players. From the original 148 high rollers, Jason Koon will start Saturday’s play as chip leader with 1.646m, but Jonathan Duhamel (who’s having one hell of a week down in the Bahamas) is right behind with 1.53m. Nicholas Fierro and Leonid Bilokur are sitting around the 1.1m mark, with Isaac Haxton, Govert Metaal, Michael Telker and Randy Lew rounding out the table.
Stateside, Freddy Deeb has won the main event at the World Series of Poker Circuit’s inaugural visit to the Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles. For outlasting a 549-player field, Deeb earned his first shiny WSOP-C gold ring and nearly $172k, lifting his career earnings over the $7.8m mark. Four-time WSOP-C ring-bearer Alexandru Masek was denied his shot at getting one more for his thumb, but he did take home $106k as consolation for finishing second. Leroy Spires earned $77k for finishing third.
Also at the Bike, we should note that last Saturday, La Sengphet overcame a 377-strong field at Event #5 (a $300 NLHE) to earn $25k. In doing so, she became the first female player to win three WSOP-C open tournaments. The next WSOP-C stop is already underway at the Choctaw Casino Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, with the $1,600 main event getting underway on Jan. 21.
Across the pond in Nottingham, 433 players took part in the Dusk Till Dawn £500 Deepstack event. When it came down to heads-up play between Andrew Wan and Frank Flanagan, the pair decided to chop the remaining prize money into £45k chunks, with the extra £7,500 going to the Wanner, er, winner. (Sorry, Freudian slip.) Wan went home with the extra dosh, Flanagan took second, and Waheed Asharaf earned £21k for third place.