Las Vegas (December 1, 2014) – The World Series of Poker Circuit’s stop at Planet Hollywood ended a week ago, and at the conclusion of the twelve ring events, the Casino Champion was Kheang Tang. This was only the second Circuit stop where Tang has cashes, but he made it count. He cashed in three events, made two final tables, earned one Circuit ring, and won a free entry into the 2015 National Championship.

Tang pulled off the unusual feat of leading the Casino Champion race wire-to-wire. He won the first event at Planet Hollywood, giving him 50 points and the early lead. It was a re-entry tournament that drew a massive 1,387 entries, and thanks to its huge field, this event had the biggest first-place prize at this stop (except for the Main Event). So Tang held the tiebreaker once Event #2 ended and someone else held 50 points as well.

The tiebreaker became unnecessary pretty soon, though. Kheang Tang worked his way back to another final table in Event #4: $365 No-Limit Hold’em. Despite being short-stacked for much of Day 2, he was soon heads up and playing for another ring. He almost won, but the deck and his opponent had other plans, and Tang bowed out in second. That gave him a total of 87.5 points, which would be enough to win the title of Casino Champion. He cashed again a few days later and ended up with 90 points at the end of the series.

Tang’s victory in the re-entry event came at the end of a marathon session. With the big starting field, a total of 196 players advanced to Day 2, and no Day 3 was scheduled. So they resumed play at 2 p.m. and kept playing until Tang held all the chips, which didn’t happen until about 6:30 a.m. the next morning. Tang recovered quickly, though, and was at another final table just a couple days later.

Tang also already has plans for the money. When there were still six players left, he said he wanted to win so his mother could take the winter off work. She’s an interpreter who is fluent in seven languages. Tang explained that the work could be strenuous. “She has to drive everywhere, and Oregon right now is really cold. I told her if I do well, I’d pay for her time off. So she has a vacation,” he said with a smile.

Along with the title of Casino Champion, Tang wins an entry into the 2015 World Series of Poker National Championship (dates and venue to be announced). The entry is essentially a free $10,000 buy-in. A total of 100 seats will be given away to other Casino Champions, Circuit Main Event champions, and the top 50 players on the Circuit leaderboard over the course of the season.

Here are Tang’s full results at Planet Hollywood: