Brad Ruben Adds World Series Of Poker Gold Ring To His Bracelets In Choctaw

Brad Ruben – Photo Credit: WSOP Circuit

Accomplished World Series of Poker player Brad Ruben already had many gold bracelets in his trophy case. Four, in fact. But Ruben’s collection was missing a WSOP Circuit gold ring, that was until Nov. 6. On that date the Floridian poker pro took down the WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event to pick up his first WSOPC title and the top prize of $250,140.

This was the largest tournament score yet for Ruben. It increased his career earnings to just north of $1.9 million, with the vast majority of those cashes coming in WSOP events.

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament had three starting flights that produced a field of 934 entries. That put the total prize pool at $1,415,000 to top the guarantee of $1 million. The top 136 players cashed for at least $1,294.

Day 2 saw a returning field of 94 players that whittled down to the final 12 before the end of the day. Notable players that made a deep run in the tournament included Brian Green (14th), Daniel Lowery (16th), Rania Nasreddine (17th), Cord Garcia (18th), Christopher Staats (21st), Dustin Schoonover (22nd), Derek Normand (24th), Ryan Van Sanford (26th), and Jared Ingles (27th).

It took less than half an hour to set the final table of nine after cards got into the air on the final day of play, and Ruben found himself holding the chip lead at that time. Two players fell before the first break, and then Ruben got in on the action by eliminating Danny Marx in seventh place.

Ruben steadily kept increasing his stack to hold the lead while eliminations fell around him, and then he scored another knockout punch when he took out William Nguyen in fifth place. By the second break at the final table, Ruben held a 2:1 chip advantage other the next closest competitor.

Ruben then took out the defending champion at the WSOP Circuit Choctaw main event, Harvey Castro, who made a valiant effort at back-to-back titles at the stop. Ruben was the grim reaper once again when he sent Kaleb Harwell to the rail in third place.

Ruben took a large 5:1 chip advantage into the heads-up final against bracelet winner David Diaz, who had seen his tournament life at risk multiple times on his journey to the final match. Diaz would survive another 45 minutes before the final hand transpired.

Diaz was all in preflop with AJ in the hole, and Ruben had him covered holding A10. The final board brought help for Ruben when it was dealt K94106, and Diaz was eliminated in second place. The $154,597 in prize money he took home put Diaz up to $2.65 million in career tournament earnings.

Here is a look at the payouts and POY points awarded at the final table:

The next stop on the WSOP Circuit schedule has already begun at Harvey’s Lake Tahoe in Nevada, with a $1,700 buy-in main event that runs from Nov. 10-13. You can see the full schedule for the tournament series right here.