The World Series of Poker Circuit rings race has been red-hot this spring, with several of the top title earners on the tour taking down events in recent months. The latest entry in this saga saw Maurice Hawkins take down the 2025 WSOPC Horseshoe Tunica $400 Monster Stack no-limit hold’em event for $34,711 and his 19th gold ring.
This victory moved Hawkins into a tie with four-time bracelet winner Ari Engel for the most WSOPC titles won. He already held the tour’s record for career earnings with nearly $3.2 million in cashes. Six of his 19 WSOPC wins have come in main events on the tour, including his triumph in the big dance at the Horseshoe Baltimore stop in March for $140,752.
Hawkins has now won three rings in 2025. He entered this year trailing Engel by two titles, but his hat-trick of wins so far to the one victory for Engel have put the two WSOPC end-bosses back on even footing.
“It’s a great accomplishment," Hawkins told WSOP reporters on scene after coming out on top. “But this whole online situation, where you got guys getting five, six, seven rings but five out of the last six cashes is no more than five thousand. It’s terrible. The state of online ring hunting, I just don’t like it.”
Hawkins’ statement could be referring to players like Michael Lavin, who now sits in fourth place in the ring race with 17 wins. The bracelet winner’s results have come almost entirely online, with 186 cashes in rings events totaling $457,001 in earnings.
This was Hawkins’ eighth final-table finish overall in 2025. The 336 Card Player Player of the Year points that he earned for topping the field of 571 entries brought his total to 2,108, which is good for 22nd place in the overall POY standings.
Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Earnings | POY Points |
| 1 | Maurice Hawkins | $34,711 | 336 |
| 2 | Dylan Crawford | $21,452 | 280 |
| 3 | Mike Mieszala | $15,081 | 224 |
| 4 | Michael Costello | $10,822 | 168 |
| 5 | Dave Alfa | $7,931 | 140 |
| 6 | Adam Henning | $5,939 | 112 |
| 7 | Connor Steinbrook | $4,545 | 84 |
| 8 | Charlie Dawson | $3,558 | 56 |
| 9 | Anh Nguyen | $2,849 | 28 |
Daniel Lowery came within one spot of making it a three-way tie at the top of the rings leaderboard. He finished as the runner-up in a separate $400 buy-in event in Tunica for $6,924, keeping his title count on the tour at 18. His two latest wins came in a pair of seniors events in Tulsa in March.
Daniel Lowery almost joined Maurice to 19 WSOPC rings, finishing 2nd in the $400 NL Hold’em at Tunica https://t.co/PzEpwSHQNR
— Kevin Mathers (@Kevmath) April 24, 2025
Check out the top ten from the WSOPC rings race below:
| Rank | Player | Rings | WSOPC Earnings |
| 1 | Maurice hawkins | 19 | $3,178,688 |
| 2 | Ari Engel | 19 | $1,183,153 |
| 3 | Daniel Lowery | 18 | $1,914,990 |
| 4 | Michael Lavin | 17 | $457,001 |
| 5 | Joshua Reichard | 16 | $1,292,882 |
| 6 | Michael Setera | 14 | $400,167 |
| 7 | Soheb Porbandarwala | 13 | $1,054,550 |
| 8 | Valentin Vornicu | 13 | $693,165 |
| 9 | Corey Paggeot | 11 | $597,484 |
| 10 | David Larson | 11 | $559,999 |
Photo provided by WSOP.
