Tuesday, May 16, 2017 4:31 PM Local Time
Marshall White Wins Third Ring, First in NOLA
North Carolina pro takes down $580-buy-in event to collect $25,521 and the jewelry
Marshall White is the newest three-time winner on the WSOP Circuit. White outlasted a field of 204 entries in the $580-buy-in event at Harrah’s New Orleans, collecting his third gold ring and the top prize of $26,521.
White is a 32-year-old professional poker player who lives in Boone, North Carolina, home of his alma mater, Appalachian State University. He’s only been playing live tournament poker for about four years, but he’s already racked up more than $750,000 in earnings, including those three Circuit victories.
After a handful of near misses, White broke through on the Circuit in 2015, winning a $365 Turbo at the Palm Beach Kennel Club to add his name to the list of gold ring winners. The following year, he collected a second ring with a win at Choctaw in Oklahoma, and he’s continued the once-per-season trend in New Orleans this week, snagging ring number three with just a few chances left in the season.
White’s run to this victory began with a successful Day 1 campaign, ending the day third in chips with 27 players remaining. He was essentially tied with Gerardo Hernandez for the lead with by the time the nine-handed final table was set, and the rest of the day belonged to him. White took care of James Arruebarrena in seventh place, then Billy Poindexter in sixth and Brian Woodbury in fifth.
Hernandez was responsible for the elimination of Robert Elliott in fourth place, and he found himself with more than half the total chips in play entering three-handed action. Both White and Stanley Koenig found doubles-up thorough Hernandez, though, and White went ahead and eliminated him in third place a short while later.
Koenig knew he was an underdog in the heads-up match, beginning the duel with a 2:1 chip disadvantage, and he took the first spot he could find. On the turn of a king-jack-four-deuce board with two spades, Koenig made his stand with jack-nine of spades against White’s king-queen. The Ten of Hearts on the river was a miss for Koenig to eliminate him as the runner-up, and White was surrounded by friends as he posed for winner’s photos once again.