ST. LOUIS, MO - Event #1 of Harrah’s St. Louis first-ever WSOP Circuit is in the books.
Dustin Grimm of Cedar Hill, MO outlasted an impressive 675-player field, earning $40,837 and a coveted WSOP Circuit Event Ring.
The $300 +(40) buy-in tournament was the largest ever held in the state of Missouri and generated a total prize pool of $196,134.
WSOP Director and Vice President of International Poker Operations, Jack Effel, was on hand to address the mass of Day 1 starters. Before announcing the tournament rules, he thanked the players for the large turnout and for representing a booming poker community in the Midwest.
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Name
|
Hometown
|
Seat
|
Chip Count
|
|
Brett Reinhart
|
Laporte,
|
1
|
827,000
|
|
Nick Weber
|
St. Louis, MO
|
2
|
562,000
|
|
Sam Lehman
|
St. Louis, MO
|
3
|
390,000
|
|
Dustin Grimm
|
Cedar Hill, MO
|
4
|
325,000
|
|
Charles Beggs
|
Fishers, IN
|
5
|
325,000
|
|
Gregory Headrick
|
St. Louis, MO
|
6
|
387,000
|
|
Mark Voll
|
Chicago, IL
|
7
|
313,000
|
|
John Feigl
|
Caseyville, IL
|
8
|
981,000
|
|
John Thompson
|
Terre Haute, IN
|
9
|
780,000
|
|
Tim Vance
|
Millstadt,
|
10
|
530,000
|
Tim Vance suffered a bad run of cards and was eliminated in 10th place. The 2008 EPT Copenhagen Champion was disappointed but still all smiles as he left the remaining nine players to resume play.
Ninth Place
Blinds moved up to 20,000/40,000 with 5,000 antes. Despite heading to the final table with the chip lead, Feigl saw many of his chips get divvied up among the table’s shorter stacks.
Heads-up against Gregory Headrick on a flop of , Fiegl was confident enough with his AQ to get the rest of his stack in the pot. Headrick, however was sitting on a dominating AK. Blanks on the turn and river resulted in a disappointing finish for the self-employed 49-year-old who started playing poker a few months ago. Ninth place paid $3,275.
Eighth Place
With blinds now at 30,000/60,000 with 5,000 antes, short-stack Mark Voll’s tournament run was all but finished after moving all-in for just under 300,000 with and getting a call from Charles Beggs who turned over pocket queens. The king-high flop was no help to Voll, nor was a second king on the turn. However an on the river doubled up the 23-year student from Chicago and gave him new life.
Voll moved all-in again the very next hand. This time, it was Nick Weber who made the call. Weber expected a race at best as he turned over pocket 8’s but was left looking for a miracle of his own after Voll tabled pocket kings.
The board did not oblige Weber who was left in a bad way after doubling up Voll to about 1.13 million. Weber was all-in for about 300,000 shortly after with , only to be called by Gregory Headrick with pocket aces. A queen on the board was not enough for Weber and his tournament run was over. The 25-year old student from St. Louis picked up $3,864.
Seventh Place
Still reeling from his earlier bad beat, Beggs moved all-in with ace-high and got two callers by way of Headrick and Voll. The two live stacks checked the board down to fifth street, which Beggs got none of, sending him to rail. Beggs is an IT specialist from Fishers, IN. He collected $4,766 for his two-day effort.
Sixth Place
In a monster three-way hand, Grimm shoved his 355,000 stack with . After tanking a bit, Brett Reinhart looked to isolate the all-in player by moving all-in with . Sam Lehman couldn’t lay down his and made the call.
Grimm shouted “yes!” in relief after pairing his seven on a flop, but was quickly subdued after Lehman pointed out that he had top pair queens. Mania quickly returned for Grimm after a hit the turn and a king on the river.
Grimm tripled up to over a million; Reinhart took a slide down the leader board while Lehman was left with two measly gray 5,000 chips. After anteing up the next hand, Lehman tossed his other gray in the pot with . He was unable to improve on the board against Voll’s . Reihnart is a 24-year old who teaches middle school in inner city St. Louis. He earned $7,159 for his sixth place finish.
Fifth Place
Shortly after blinds crept up to 40,000/80,000/10,000, John Thompson made it 200,000 to go from the button and got a call from Grimm in the BB. After a flop of , Thompson made a move on the big blind, moving all-in with J8 off, but got called by Voll with A6. Blanks hit the turn and river, sending Thompson to the payout table to collect $9,532. Thompson is a 39-year old HVAC service tech from Terre Haute, IN with cashes at tournaments at the Bellagio and Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Fourth Place
Headrick was next to bust after re-raising Voll’s 180k bet all-in from the button with . Voll called with , pairing his queen on the flop. The turn and river were no help to Headrick and the 26-year old poker pro with a Masters of Accounting was eliminated. He took home $11,925 for fourth.
Third Place
Aggressive pre-flop play from Reinhart picked him up some much needed chips but caught up to him after the 22-year old moved his 750,000 stack all-in with J5 suited. Grimm made the call with pocket 8’s. It appeared that the 8’s wouldn’t hold for Grimm after a flop, but a turn and river completed a straight for him, ending Reinhart’s tournament run. Third place paid $14,494.
Second Place
Grimm had a marginal chip lead over Voll as heads up play began at around 6:15 pm. Grimm strengthened his lead with a number of post-flop raises against his opponent, and moved to about an 8-1 chip lead after rivering trip sixes and getting a call from Voll for much of his stack.
Voll doubled back to over a million after flopping a flush on Grimm’s pocket aces, but would not gain any more ground than that.
In the final hand of the evening, Voll re-raised Grimm all-in for about 900,000 with A7. Voll called with pocket tens and the two saw a flop of . A on the turn and on the river gave Grimm the win, worth $40,837 and a Circuit Event gold ring. Voll collected $23,203 for second.
Grimm owns and operates Top Pair Poker, a startup that sets up free poker tournaments at area bars. This was his largest tournament win.
The 34-year old hugged his parents who were watching from the rail along with a teary-eyed wife before wiping a bit of moisture from his own.
He says that he was down to only 1,300 chips from a starting stack of 8,000 after taking a bad beat early in the tournament, but after chipping back up felt that the tournament was his to win.
“About eight hours into the tournament, it was weird, I felt that I was meant to be here this time. I’ve never felt that way about any tournament that I’ve played in.”
When asked about his future plans, Grimm says that he’s looking at playing the Main Event and will take his wife on a well-deserved vacation.