Aaron Pinson put on a dominant performance at the 2025 World Series of Poker Circuit stop at Horseshoe Baltimore. The hometown hero took down the main event for $102,688 and his second career WSOPC gold ring just 11 days after earning his first. Pinson began the series with a victory in a $400 kickoff event for $16,058 and the hardware. His six-figure win in the main event was the second-largest cash of his career, trailing only the $910,000 he earned as the runner-up in the World Poker Tour Prime Championship back in 2023.
Pinson booked the chip lead at the end of every day he played in the tournament on his way to his latest win. The wire-to-wire victory grew the 41-year-old Baltimore resident’s career earnings to more than $2.1 million.
“Variance was really on my side, it’s kind of nuts, but I think the plays were standard,” said Pinson to Poker.Org in the post-game interview. “People who gamble sometimes feel unlucky, but I’m pretty good at recognizing that the hand that happened an hour ago worked out for you. When a hand doesn’t work out for you, some people think their luck is so bad, but I just remember that I won the hand an hour ago or yesterday. I’ve been playing a long time. I’ve lost a lot of hands. I’m used to losing, it’s just keeping the same mindset and just taking each spot as is.”
The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em poker tournament attracted 332 entries across three starting flights from Oct. 9-11, falling shy of the $500,000 guarantee. The top 52 finishers made the money, with 27 advancing to day 2. By the time play was halted ahead of day 3, just four remained in contention.
Pinson booked the final knockout of the penultimate night, eliminating Matthew Richardson in fifth place ($23,516) to keep him in front heading into the last day of play.
From Four Down To One
Maryland native Christian Harder was the first to fall after play resumed, with Pinson eliminating the 2017 PokerStars Championship Bahamas winner in fourth place ($32,759). Harder got all-in with A-K leading the K-Q suited of Pinson, but a queen-high runout saw Pinson extend his advantage even further.
The skirmish for third place also went Pinson’s way as his pocket fives held against the A-10 of Born after the chips went in on a nine-high flop. Pinson dodged the overs and turned gutshot of Born to send him packing with $46,792.
The stacks at the start of heads-up play saw Pinson sitting with a better than 4:1 chip advantage over Josh Mischel. It took just one all-in after that to decide the fate of the tournament.
The final hand saw Mischel jam from the button with 1.61 million holding A♠J♣, and Pinson called to cover with A♦4♣ in the hole. The final board ran out Q♠4♠2♦4♦Q♦ to give Pinson fours full of queens and the win. Mischel earned $68,489 as the runner-up, the largest payday of his tournament career. His lifetime earnings now sit at almost $270,000.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Payout | POY Points |
| 1 | Aaron Pinson | $102,668 | 480 |
| 2 | Joshua Mischel | $68,489 | 400 |
| 3 | Jimmy Born | $46,792 | 320 |
| 4 | Christian Harder | $32,759 | 240 |
| 5 | Matthew Richardson | $23,516 | 200 |
| 6 | Harrison Dobin | $17,320 | 160 |
| 7 | Dennis Grizzle | $13,097 | 120 |
| 8 | Anthony Mcie | $10,175 | 80 |
| 9 | Changfeng Fan | $8,128 | 40 |
Photo Credit: WSOP / Poker.Org
