Harrah's, Cherokee. (08 August 2019) For the second time Ryan Eriquezzo has found himself at the top of the Global Casino Championship, taking home his second World Series of Poker gold bracelet and $279,431 at Harrah’s in Cherokee, North Carolina.
Eriquezzo, a 34-year old professional poker player from Danbury, CT, has a long history of success in Circuit events all over the United Staes of America. Eriquezzo has won four World Series of Poker Circuit gold rings and 1 WSOP Gold bracelet prior to this victory for a total of $894,797 career earnings.
“It’s pretty crazy,” Eriquezzo said after the event. “It’s similar [to his last Global Casino Championship win] but it’s different. I had a much smaller rail then I did when I won in Vegas.”
Eriquezzo came into the final 6 second in chips with 1,900,000 only behind Paulius Vaitiekunas but lost a flip early when his ace-king made a pair of aces but he lost when his oppoenent, three-time World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring winner Eric Salazar turned a set of queens and the rail exploded. “It felt like I was coming into hostile territory, like why is everyone against me?” He joked. After that flip though things seemed to go his way, “This was a much easier route to victory at this final table, it seemed everything just went my way after that flip.”
Eriquezzo ended up winning the battle against Salazar heads up after some back and fourth play. Eriquezzo had lost the chip lead at one point during heads up but kept his head high, saying he was just focused on playing the best he could on every street. In the last hand, Salazar tried to make a move by raising all-in on the turn and had run into Eriquezzo’s flopped flush, leaving him drawing dead and sealing Eriquezzo’s victory and his second WSOP gold bracelet.
Eriquezzo says he is unsure of his plans in the future for poker after playing the Main Event this week. “"It would be nice to take a little break and do some traveling, but I've said that before. I'll take a look at the schedule and go from there.”
The tournament started with 129 entries, and the top 20 making the money. Other players finishing in the money include Maurice Hawkins (3rd place), Joshua Reichard (9th), Stephen Song (10th), Paul Sokoloff (12th), Jake Bazeley (19th), and Will Berry (20th)
Here are the final table results, Click Here for Full Results.
1 - Ryan Eriquezzo - $279,431
2 - Eric Salazar -$172,431
3 - Maurice Hawkins - $119,555
4 - Joshua Turner - $84,961
5 - Paulius Vaitiekunas - $62,023
6 - Cedric Adam - $46,546
7 - Jordan Piva - $35,939
8 - Jarod Minghini - $28,572
9 - Joshua Reichard - $23,411