Carter McMahon Wins WSOP Circuit Pompano Beach Main Event

Carter McMahon triumphed over a field of 820 entries in the World Series of Poker Circuit Harrah’s Pompano Beach no-limit hold’em main event, earning a career-best score of $212,703 for the win. This triumph came just a few weeks after McMahon scored his first gold ring in a pot-limit Omaha event at the WSCOPC stop in Baltimore. With this victory in Florida, he is now a two-time gold ring winner with more than $485,000 in recorded tournament earnings.

“I don’t really have many words right now, to be honest with you. It’s all coming so fast. I just won my first ring two weeks ago. To get here, this is a lot more money than the first ring, and it felt like a lot more pressure. Feels like I haven’t eaten in two days. It’s been fun, though,” McMahon told Poker.Org live reporters covering the event.

“I started playing during COVID. We were kind of locked in the house, and I told myself, ‘Let’s just get really good at something while you have all this time.’ So, I devoted myself to getting really good at this game. I hadn’t really seen the results I’ve been looking for. This feels like it was a long time coming,” McMahon continued. “I definitely feel like I’ve put in my 10,000 hours into this game. Way over that, by now. I feel like this is the start of something big.”

The $1,700 buy-in tournament ran from Oct. 16-20, with three starting flights on offer. The strong turnout saw the prize pool grow to $1,110,910 to eclipse the $1 million guarantee, with the top 87 players all earning a share. The field was whittled from 86 down to six on day 2.

Six To One

McMahon was in the lead at the start of both day 2 and the final table. Matthew Yorra ($36,146) was the first player to fall in sixth place, and Romeo Mendoza was out next in fifth ($49,449). All-time WSOPC rings leader Maurice Hawkins came very close to securing a record-extending 22nd gold ring, but ultimately bowed out in fourth place ($68,952). He now has more than $6.5 million in career earnings after this latest deep run.

McMahon then scored his first knockout of the day when he busted Jeffrey Gale (3rd – $97,967). That gave him a huge chip advantage at the start of heads-up play with a 7:1 ratio against Ricardo Eyzaguirre. Things started to reverse course, though, as Eyzaguirre doubled up twice to even the score.

But the third time the chips got all in between the final two contenders would be the last.. McMahon opened things up for 300,000 from the button and Eyzaguirre called before the flop was dealt 9♥8♥3♦. McMahon bet 500,000 and Eyzaguirre raised to 1,700,000. After that was called, the J♦ turn prompted McMahon to check. Eyzaguirre kept firing, this time for 3,000,000. McMahon check-shoved and Eyzaguirre called for his tournament life with 9♣8♣. That two-pair was behind the 10♥7♣ of McMahon, who turned a straight. The 5♥ changed nothing and Eyzaguirre was eliminated in second place. He earned $141,777 as the runner-up, boosting his lifetime haul to nearly $2.2 million.

Final Table Results

Photo Credit: WSOP and Poker.Org