25 February 2020 (Las Vegas) - Martin Zamani has just won the last event of the Rio Las Vegas World Series of Poker Circuit. The Florida native topped a stacked starting field of 179 players in the $2,200 High Roller event, to earn $89,143 and his first WSOP Circuit gold ring.
The two-day event attracted 164 entrants on Day 1, but only 55 of them survived to move onto the final day, including last year’s Circuit Main event winner Viet Vo, three-time ring winner Joe Kuether, and WSOP Main event finalist Alex Livingston. 13 additional players decided to take a stab at the last event of the series before the registration closed at the beginning of Day 2.
The field got reduced to a final table six hours into the final day, with Zamani finding himself as the short stack. Zamani’s tournament life was at risk multiple times during the final table, but the winner managed to stay alive until he was the last man standing.
When asked how it felt to win his first WSOP Circuit ring Zamani said, "I'm rich!" with a laugh as he added another WSOP cash to his lengthy resume that already boasted over $2.1 million in live career earnings.
The seasoned poker veteran had a visibly relaxed mentality at the table, and when asked about his final table strategy, he explained his unorthodox way to victory.
"I had four racks and then I had no racks...So I decided if I won a hand that I would celebrate with a drink and then I continued celebratin,." Zamani replied with a smile.
When the final table started to bust it seemed like every player stayed to watch it finished, along with some other notable friends to watch Zamani secure his first ring. "It wasn't me that did anything, it was the friends and atmosphere around me that did it," said the last ring winner on the Rio Las Vegas WSOP Circuit.
The event started Monday, February 24th. The field generated a $358,000 prizepool and 29 players made the money.
Full Results
Live Updates for the Event
Here are the final table results:
1st: Martin Zamani
2nd: Nicholas Pupillo
3rd: Michael Rossitto
4th: Brent Roberts
5th: Alex Rocha
6th: Jasthi Kumar
7th: Roland Israelashvili
8th: Viet Vo
9th:Thai Ha
This is a preliminary article, full event report will be posted shortly.