An argument that is often put forward in poker is that you have to keep turning up and putting yourself in the position to win to get results. One man who disproved that theory is Philip Shing, who won the WSOP Circuit tournament in Potawatomi for $151,284 at the weekend.
The $1,700-entry Main Event had a great turnout, and with 524 entries, saw a final table of players all shooting for a massive six-figure return on their investment. In the end it was Shing, a player with a previous WSOP Circuit ring to his name, having won $580-entry 6-Max NLHE event at WSOP Circuit Foxwoods Event back in 2015 for a little under $15,000 who did it again.
Shing’s victory came on a very busy final day where the final eight players were all from America, not uncommon in WSOP Circuit events, but not altogether usual, as we found out recently when we spoke with British poker player Arron Fletcher about his own WSOP Circuit moment in the Moroccan Sun.
This time around, it was Shing’s win, however. The first player to bust at the final table was Marcus Yofon, who entered a classic coinflip with a suite ace-king and was unable to hit the deck across the board against Shing’s pocket eights.
Shing had the momentum from that first elimination, and another player who got an early boost to their chances of the deepest of runs was Cero Zuccarello, who busted Mike Hartzheim in 7th place when his aces up held against Hartzheim’s top pair and flush draw, which came in via the ace of diamonds on the river but only gave Zuccarello a full house.
With the table now playing 6-Max, Chris Roth was next to depart when his short-stack shove with nine-seven ran into the monster hand of Zuccarello’s kings. Zuccarello, however, didn’t gain that many chips from that hand, and eventually found himself on the rail too when he was busted by kings, this time held by John Gallaher.
James Pupillo had a sense of history repeating itself when he was eliminated in fourth place, having reached exactly that place just six months earlier in the last WSOP Circuit Potawatomi event. This time, he must have felt it wasn’t to be, all-in with ace-jack only for Philip Shing’s ace-eight to spike an eight on the turn to bust his hopes.
Shing was on a roll and it didn’t end there, his next call giving him the edge heads-up after he busted John Gallaher. Shing had ace-queen and he had called at the perfect time, Gallaher’s jack-queen cut down and giving Shing a 6:1 lead going into the heads-up match.
That duel would last just one hand, Ken Donarski realising that his only chance was to try to even the stacks as soon as could, lest the blinds gobble his dream up there and then. His move was gusty, jack-eight seeing all his chips go into the middle. Shing, however, called with again-dominating ace-jack, and held with ease to grab his second WSOP Circuit ring and prove – a little like four-time WPT champion Darren Elias – that breaks between tournaments can sometimes bring out the best in any player.
As PokerNews reported, Shing’s win not only guaranteed him a career-high score of $151,284 and the WSOP Circuit Championship ring, but it also awarded him a seat into the prestigious 2020 Global Casino Championship. For the player who admitted that he only plays a couple of events a year, it marks life-changing money for no life-changing alterations to his lifestyle. Maybe that is one of the greatest aspirations for the recreational poker player to achieve in these days of GTO.
WSOP Circuit Potawatomi Final Table Results:
| Place | Player | Prize |
| 1st | Philip Shing | $151,284 |
| 2nd | Ken Donarski | $93,498 |
| 3rd | John Gallaher | $68,947 |
| 4th | James Pupillo | $51,484 |
| 5th | Cero Zuccarello | $38,937 |
| 6th | Chris Roth | $29,829 |
| 7th | Michael Hartzheim | $23,152 |
| 8th | Marcus Yofon | $18,209 |
