Steven Snyder Wins First WSOP Circuit Event of New Season
Steven Snyder became the first champion of the 2016-17 World Series of Poker Circuit, winning the $1,675 Main Event at Harrah's Cherokee in North Carolina. He pocketed $241,198, more than doubling his career tournament cashes in the process.
It's also the second WSOPC ring for Snyder, after he won a six-max event in the very same venue in 2014 for $27,430.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Steven Snyder | Huntersville, NC | $241,198 |
| 2 | Russell Sullivan | West Columbia, SC | $148,700 |
| 3 | David Aker | Kennesaw, GA | $109,625 |
| 4 | James Juvancic | Westchester, IL | $81,707 |
| 5 | Roger Jones | Wayland, KY | $61,711 |
| 6 | Josh Turner | St. Louis, MO | $47,215 |
| 7 | Scott Stewart | Lakewood, CA | $36,578 |
| 8 | Matthew Higgins | Canton, GA | $28,691 |
| 9 | Gregory Yeager | Sabina, OH | $22,781 |
The tournament drew 804 runners for a prize pool of just over $1.2 million, easily covering the $1 million guarantee. Some of the players making the 81 paid positions but falling short of the final table included Maurice Hawkins, Neil Scott, Ken “Teach” Aldridge, Sal DiCarlo, Cody Pack, John Holley, and Michael Hahn.
According to the live updates, Snyder grabbed the chip lead on one of the first pots of Day 3. However, he doubled a couple of opponents up and headed to the final table with stack that was only around average in a tightly bunched field where leader David Aker had under 60 big blinds.
It was James Juvancic who scored the first couple of eliminations and grabbed the first definitive lead of the final table, knocking out Greg Yeager and Matthew Higgins. Scott Stewart went out a bit later in seventh.
With six players left, Josh Turner was one of those still in contention. He was coming off of a third-place finish in the Global Casino Championship for $150,851. However, after grinding a short stack for awhile, his run ended when he pushed his last five big blinds with K♣6♠ and Aker called with A♣7♣. Turner hit a king but it wasn't enough on the A♥K♦10♣8♠5♦ board.
Snyder then picked off a three-barrel bluff from Aker, calling three streets with nines on a K♠5♠2♣5♣K♣ runout. That put him in the lead with 7,250,000 at 50,000/100,000/10,000.
Roger Jones busted next, then Aker flopped trip tens with Q♣10♥ to bust Juvancic, who was unable to get away from kings.
Things got close again three-handed, with all of the players hovering around the same stack sizes in the 45 big blind range for a time. Then, Russell Sullivan doubled through Aker with sevens against A♦9♥ all in preflop, and Aker was the one out third when he got 6♥3♥ in against Snyder's aces on a Q♥6♣4♥ flop. The turn brought a 3♦ but the river was the Q♣ and Snyder took almost a 4-1 lead into heads-up play.
Once there, Sullivan shoved all in with A♣Q♣ over a Snyder raise, but Snyder held K♠K♥ and called immediately, holding up on the J♦3♣7♦4♦6♦ runout.
With the win, Snyder assured himself not only of a nice windfall, but also booked the first seat into next year's Global Casino Championship.
Image courtesy of WSOP
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