Jessie Bryant Grabs His First World Series Of Poker Circuit Main Event Title In Tunica

Jessie Bryant is now a six-time World Series of Poker Circuit gold ring winner. The Conway, Arkansas resident took down his first-ever WSOPC main event title at the Horseshoe Casino and Hotel in Tunica, Mississippi on Feb. 3, besting a field of 487 entries to earn $144,962 and his latest piece of hardware.

This was the second-largest payday of Bryant’s career, trailing only the $450,400 he secured for a 17th-place finish in the record-setting 2024 WSOP main event. He now has $1,174,478 in lifetime earnings under his belt.

“I’m pretty excited, this feels like a long time coming. Every time I’ve been in the Circuit main, nothing ever works out. I had one where I had three kings against aces with one card to come. Ari Engel spikes an ace on the river after we were all in to win it. Things always seem to happen, but in this one, since day 1, it just seemed meant to be," Bryant told Poker.Org reporters after winning the title.

The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em poker tournament featured two starting flights, and the total prize pool clocked in at $737,805 to top the $500,000 guarantee. The final 72 players all took home at least $3,404 in prize money.

There were 56 players that returned for the penultimate day of action, and they played all the way down to a final table of six. This was also the day when the eventual champion felt quite at home. “Two levels into Day 2 I just felt like everything was clicking. It just felt like everything I was doing was correct. I knew I had a great shot,” said Bryant.

Notables that were lost along the way during the penultimate day of play included gold-ring winners David Cook (ninth), Trace Henderson (13th), Pamela Belote (17th), Kyle Cartwright (18th), Carl Masters (21st), Bradley Mercer (26th), Tomas Teran (28th), and Nicholas Hobbs (30th).

Bryant was the dominant chip leader when cards got into the air on the final day of play. He increased that lead by taking out William McBrayer in sixth place to kick off the elimination action. The positive momentum for Bryant kept rolling, as he then knocked out Jason Munlin in fifth place.

Mark Kehrees busted next in fourth place, and Bryant remained well out in front heading into three-handed play. Bryant eliminated Donald Voyle in third place for his third knockout of the day. That gave him a big 5:1 chip advantage at the start of heads-up play against Dylan Lemery.

Despite that healthy lead, Lemery was able to battle back into the match and eventually move in front. “I had an idea that Dylan was very capable. I was going to put a little pressure on him, but I wasn’t going to get crazy. I didn’t get too stressed. I never felt like I didn’t have enough chips to win it. My mentor Shawn Rice tells me to forget about those hands, to be a beast and take what you got to get them back,” said Bryant about the heads-up match.

Bryant pulled back in front and began to shut the door when he made trip aces in a pivotal hand to pull back out to a nearly 4:1 advantage. The final hand saw Lemery get all in with pocket aces on a board reading K-8-6, but Bryant had made eights-up with 8-6 in the hole. Bryant held through the turn and river to send Lemery home with $96,983 as the runner-up finisher. Lemery’s career earnings have now surpassed $610,000 thanks to this latest deep run.

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

This next WSOP Circuit stop is already underway at Harrah’s Pompano Beach in Florida. The tournament series runs from Jan. 30 – Feb. 10 with the $1,700 main event taking place Feb. 6-10.

Photo Credit: World Series of Poker.

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