Atlantic City, NJ – Alexandru Masek is making poker look too easy.
He just won his second World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring within a year’s time, and has future plans to accomplish much more. Eleven months after winning his first WSOP Circuit gold ring at Harrah’s Rincon in California, Masek traveled to the East Coast for the first time and pulled off an encore.
With another major tournament in Los Angeles in February added to the mix, Masek now has three major wins on his resume since March 2009, an enviable record any poker player would crave.
Masek is a 25-year-old college student. He is currently attending law school at the University of San Diego. Masek came to the WSOP Circuit event being held at Caesars Atlantic City during his Spring Break. While his peers populated the beaches and bars of Florida and elsewhere, Masek chose to pursue his poker passion instead and profited to the tune of nearly 40 grand. Not too many college kids in Daytona Beach can claim they pocketed enough money to pay tuition in just a week’s vacation.
Masek won the $340 buy in No-Limit Hold’em tournament and collected the top cash prize, which officially totaled $39,372. He was also presented with his second gold ring, which is the ultimate token of achievement given out to all tournament champions who win WSOP Circuit events held around the country. Masek’s previous victory took place in a $230 No-Limit Hold’em event held at Rincon. This was his fifth time to cash in a WSOP Circuit tournament.
This marked the fifth of 12 WSOP Circuit events on this year’s Caesars schedule. The two-day tournament attracted 451 entrants. Most of the field was eliminated on Day One, which clocked in at 14 hours. Four tables of survivors returned for Day Two which played until a deal was reached when play became five-handed. The top 45 finishers divided up prize money from a $131,241 prize pool.
Final table play began on a Monday night and was held inside the Palladium Arena at Caesars. The only previous WSOP Circuit winner among the final nine was Alexandru Masek. Masek arrived as the chip leader and was in a comfortable position throughout the competition. The low blinds (5,000-10,000) and average chip stack of nearly 300,000 from the start gave competitors plenty of play. The nine finalists and their starting chip counts were as follows:
|
Seat |
Player |
Hometown |
Chip Count |
|
1 |
Jun DeLeon |
Joppa, Philippines |
211,000 |
|
2 |
Alexandru Masek |
San Diego, CA |
503,000 |
|
3 |
Pete Maniscalco |
Mount Olive, NJ |
491,000 |
|
4 |
Marc Wilson |
St. Clairsville, OH |
194,000 |
|
5 |
Stan Kayafas |
Flushing, NY |
87,000 |
|
6 |
Kevin J. Murray |
Olney, MD |
372,000 |
|
7 |
Kerry Small |
Ventnor, NJ |
103,000 |
|
8 |
Brian Grodofsky |
Merrick, NY |
424,000 |
|
9 |
Jack "Yellow Jacket" Sumner |
St. Augustine, FL |
300,000 |
Players were eliminated in the following order:
Ninth Place: DeLeon Exits Early
Jun DeLeon, who is originally from The Philippines, went out quickly. He took pocket J’s up against KQ suited and lost his entire stack when his opponent made a spade flush. DeLeon had to settle for a payout totaling $2,625. Eighth Place: Murray Dances Away
Kevin J. Murray, a professional poker player from Olney, MD took two wicked bad beats at the final table and lasted just 20 minutes. Murray’s fateful hand occurred when he was dealt AA and raised all in pre-flop. He got a call from an opponent who held JJ. When a J flopped, an exasperated Murray stood up, rolled his eyes, and staggered away from the table in disbelief. Murray, who has won several online tournaments, added $3,937 to his poker bankroll.
Seventh Place: Stan the Man
Stan Kayafas, a contractor from Flushing, NY was playing in his first poker tournament ever. He managed to make it all the way to seventh place. Kayafas was severely short stacked during most of Day Two. In fact, he began the day with only a few blinds yet managed to move well into the money and made it to the final table. Kayafas’ good fortune finally ran out when he tried to make a move with a subpar hand, which was called by an opponent who made two pair. Kayafas could certainly be proud of his performance in his first and only live tournament, worth $5,250 in prize money.
Sixth Place: "Yellow Jacket" Gets Stung
Jack “Yellow Jacket” Sumner, an IT consultant from St. Augustine, FL was tortured most of the day by AQ. Sumner later said that he was dealt the marginal hand a dozen times at the final table, losing far more chips with the hand than he gained. Sumner lost most of his stack about midway into the finale when he moved all in with AQ pre flop and ran into pocket A’s.
A short time later, Sumner was dealt AQ again, moved all in, and was called by an opponent with pocket 9’s. The pocket pair held up, which was the final stinger for "The Yellow Jacket." The Georgia Tech Graduate, who now has two WSOP Circuit cashes, collected $6,562.
Fifth Place: Grodofsky Takes the Fifth
After a deal was made between the final five players, Brian Grodofsky, a business analyst from Merrick, NY took fifth place and $7,874.
Fourth Place: Wilson Fourth
Marc Wilson, a factory worker from St. Clairsville, OH took fourth place and $9,187.
Third Place: Small Comes Up Big
Kerry Small, a real estate appraiser from nearby Ventnor, NJ was the third place finisher, worth $10,499.
Second Place: Big Brown is Runner Up
Pete Maniscalco, a UPS driver from Mount Olive, NJ drove away with second place prize money totaling $21,130. He previously took second place in another WSOP Circuit event.
First Place: Masek's Second Victory
Alexandru Masek, from San Diego, CA earned his second WSOP Circuit gold ring. The law school student began playing poker in 2003. He has future plans to play in many major poker tournaments, including the WSOP in Las Vegas.