September 13, 2019 (Sacramento Area) – Bryant Miller just became the latest High Roller winner on the World Series of Poker Circuit after topping a field of 41 players in Event #10: $3,250 No-Limit Hold’em High Roller at Thunder Valley for $44,413. This first-place finish adds just another victory to his resume. At 22 years old, Miller is now the owner of three Circuit rings, all of them being in No-Limit Hold’em events.
Miller only bought in at the start of play on Day 2 and although he came in short, he started building early and found himself at the final table four hours later with an average stack.
“I bought in today, was kind of short, got a few doubles up early, not a lot of tough spots, and made a couple of good hands.”
It was a tough road to victory as Miller had to navigate through tough competitors at the final table but he was up to the challenge.
“It was really tough, a lot of really good players and I only had four or five playable hands. It just happened that those spots were I could get it all in, I held, or got lucky, one of the two.”
With multiple short stacks at the final table, Miller’s patience was a key to his win.
“I thought that I had a chance to get top three but coming in to the final table I couldn’t do too much because of all the short stacks and Ian was raising everything. I just had to basically wait them out.”
When the three-handed portion of play started, Kelly Minkin who was responsible for four eliminations at the final table and held more than half of the chips in play, was a favorite to win it. However, Miller quickly started catching up as he was winning pot after pot.
“I made a full house against a straight to double up and then I got jacks against ace-queen to double up.”
Between his run of good cards and his game on point, Miller managed to double through Niv Decalo than eliminate him, and found himself heads-up against Minkin with a slight lead. The heads-up match only lasted a couple of minutes as it was all over when Miller’s jacks held against Kelly Minkin’s ace queen in an all-in preflop situation, and Miller was crowned the champion of the High Roller.
Final Table Action
The first elimination of the final table was Ryan Awwad. Awwad only had about six big blinds left and he three-bet shoved from the big blind after Ian Steinman opened on the button. Steinman made the call and Awwad turned over jack-seven suited. Steinman tabled queen-four suited in return and ended up taking down the pot with queen-high, sending Awwad to the rail in 9th place two eliminations away from the money.
Although Mrityunjay Jha started the final table as the chip leader, he was out next as the bubble boy in 8th place. Jha only had sevens big blinds left and he needed to find a spot to double up. When action folded to him in the small blind, he shoved with jack-nine suited and got called by Minkin who was ahead with ace-seven. Minkin rivered two pair, eliminating Jha in 8th place and taking over the chip lead. The remaining seven players were in the money.
Jha wasn't only Minkin’s first victim. In fact, the very next level, Minkin ended’s Russell Garrett’s tournament run in 7th place in a blind vs blind situation. Minkin raised from the small blind with jacks and Garrett shoved from the big blind with ace-ten. Minkin snap-called and stayed head, and the field was whittled down to 6 players.
Minkin’s eliminations streak didn’t stop here. Ten minutes later, she was also responsible for the elimination of Noel Rodriguez in 6th place. Rodriguez shoved with ace-queen and Minkin called with a pair of nines. It was a typical flip but Rodriguez couldn’t hit and headed to payout desk instead.
The next player to head to the exit was Mike Heshmati in 5th place. Heshmati found himself behind with sixes in a three-way all in against Decalo’s kings and Steinman’s tens. Decalo scored a triple and Hesmati was sent out.
Heshmati was followed to the rail by Steinman. Steinman shoved his last chips with ace-ten and was snap-called by Minkin who had queens in the big blind. The board was of no help to Steinman and he was out in 4th place.
Decalo was eliminated in 3rd place by Miller. Miller had scored a double through Decalo leaving him with less than two big blinds and sent him to the rail quickly after with ace-ten suited against Decalo’s king-five.
Kelly Minkin was the runner-up of the tournament. Minkin was all in with ace-queen against Miller’s jacks but couldn’t hit and took 2nd place for $27,450.
Final Table Results
1st place: Bryant Miller - $44,413
2nd place: Kelly Minkin - $27,450
3rd place: Niv Decalo - $18,107
4th place: Ian Steinman - $12,417
5th place: Mike Heshmati - $8,867
6th place: Noel Rodriguez - $6,605
7th place: Russell Garrett - $5,141
Other familiar faces who took a shot at this event but didn’t make the money include champions JC Tran, David Brookshire, Jasthi Kumar, and Steven Grybas.
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