Evan Bethyo Tops The Field In World Series Of Poker Circuit Hammond Main EventIllinois Resident Captured $228,398 In Prize Money After Besting A Field of 900 Entries |
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Evan Bethyo won the World Series of Poker Circuit stop at the Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana on Mar. 10 for a payday worth $228,398. This was the first tournament win and gold ring for the Illinois resident, whose total earnings are now stacked up above $470,000 thanks to this victory near Chicago.
“The monkey is off my back now, I’ve been grinding for a long time. Had a few final tables, a few big scores, but it was getting to the point where I just wanted the hardware. I wanted to be a champion more than I wanted the money,” Behtyo told WSOP reporters after coming out on top.
The $1,700 buy-in no-limit hold’em tournament attracted a field of 900 entries to surpass the $1 million guarantee, resulting in a final prize pool of $1,363,500. The top 133 players all scored at least $3,423, with six-figure paydays for the top three finishers.
Bethyo held a commanding chip lead among the final six when cards got in the air on the final day. Bethyo scored the first elimination at the final table when his pocket aces topped the pocket jacks of Rich Alsup. Action continued with Xing He hitting the rail in fifth place, and the battle for fourth place lasted for a while before Bethyo scored his second knockout by busting Joseph Batterman.
John Reading then took out Scott Wright in third place, and that set the chip counts for the final match at roughly a 2:1 chip advantage in favor of Bethyo. That lead increased for a while before Reading scored a doubled to prolong the final skirmish. But even with that double up, the scales were tipped too far in Bethyo’s favor, and he finished the job a short time later.
The final hand saw Reading get all in preflop short with 9
3
. Bethyo had him covered holding 105. The board came down 8
2264 and Bethyo won the hand along with the tournament title. Reading pocketed $152,272 as the runner-up to grow his career earnings to over $1.5 million.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Evan Bethyo | $228,398 | 912 |
| 2 | John Reading | $152,272 | 760 |
| 3 | Scott Wright | $105,678 | 608 |
| 4 | Joseph Batterman | $74,644 | 456 |
| 5 | Xing He | $53,677 | 380 |
| 6 | Richard Alsup | $39,311 | 304 |
| 7 | David Bradshaw | $29,329 | 228 |
| 8 | Bekr Ali | $22,301 | 152 |
| 9 | Michael Melone | $17,287 | 76 |
The next WSOP Circuit tournament series is already running at Hard Rock Tulsa in Oklahoma with the Main Event taking place from March 5-17.
Photo credits: WSOP Circuit.
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