Mike Cordell Wins WSOP Circuit Baltimore Main Event
Mike Cordell crushed the field over the final two days of World Series of Poker Circuit Horseshoe Baltimore $1,675 Main Event to win the tournament and $148,171, along with his second gold ring.
The Arkansas native is a 2016 WSOP bracelet winner, taking the gold and $346,088 in Event #10: $1,500 Six-Max No-Limit Hold'em.
The final table of the event included Alex Queen, all-time Circuit wins leader Maurice Hawkins and Vanessa Truong, who was attempting to win back-to-back Circuit events after taking down WSOP Circuit Cherokee for $318,646.
Official Final Table Results
| Place | Player | Hometown | Prize |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mike Cordell | Little Rock, AR | $148,171 |
| 2 | Alex Queen | Bethlehem, PA | $91,562 |
| 3 | Jeremy Stein | Washington, DC | $66,905 |
| 4 | Robert Garrett | Canton, MA | $49,667 |
| 5 | Vanessa Truong | Raleigh, NC | $37,460 |
| 6 | Joshua Vizcarra | Elgin, TX | $28,671 |
| 7 | Maurice Hawkins | West Palm Beach, FL | $22,266 |
| 8 | Richard Smith | Edgewater, MD | $17,538 |
| 9 | Ryan Tamanini | Hunker, PA | $14,009 |
With 449 entries, 45 places were paid, including a number of notables. Jason Gooch, Alex Ziskin, Dennis Phillips, Ryan Jones and Justin Liberto all advanced into the money but missed out on the final table.
Cordell proved to be simply unstoppable on Day 2, taking a stack of 146 big blinds into the unofficial final table, according to the live updates.
After Ryan Tamanini got unlucky with kings against Truong's pocket fours to go out first, Cordell padded his lead in a big way. Richard Smith shoved all in for about 40 big blinds with A♦K♥ and Cordell called him with J♠J♣. The board came J♥7♠2♥3♥Q♣, giving Cordell top set and allowing him to dodge a flush draw and move to 3.8 million at 12,000/24,000/4,000.
Hawkins, meanwhile, came into the final table third in chips. However, he never got anything going and his slide ended on the final hand of the night when he went bust in seventh. Cordell bagged about 4.5 million, half of the total in play.
Cordell handed out an early double to Truong early on Day 3 when he tried bluffing all in on the turn and found himself drawing dead against a set of threes. However, he opted to get tricky and flat-call a raise while holding aces and got what he wanted when Josh Vizcarra shoved about 20 big blinds in behind him with pocket fours. Cordell held up unimproved for the knockout.
Truong busted the very next hand when Jeremy Stein played kings passively in a three-bet pot and induced her to shove on a Q♣3♣3♠8♠ board with pocket sixes.
Four-handed play saw Cordell slip down to "just" 60 big blinds as the rest of the players closed the gap some, but Cordell regained momentum when he busted Rob Garrett. A J♥9♦4♦ flop came down three-handed and Cordell put Garrett at risk with A♦8♦ after they got in a raising war. Garrett was in bad shape with a worse draw: Q♠10♦. The 3♦ turn ended things quickly and put Cordell back over 100 big blinds.
Cordell nearly had the tournament won in one fell swoop when his two short-stacked opponents, Queen and Stein, got all in preflop with K♠Q♣ and A♠K♥, respectively. Cordell opted to gamble and try to end things with J♥7♦ and did take the lead when J♦10♦8♦ flopped. However, he still had some cards to dodge and running K♣, 9♥ gave Queen a straight, while Cordell eliminated Stein in the side pot with a smaller straight.
Queen was down more than 4-1 but it looked like he was going to get back in it when he got all in for 30 big blinds holding A♣A♦ against K♣J♦ in a five-bet pot. However, Cordell turned him dead with a king-high straight and what seemed inevitable coming into the day wound up happening as Cordell's massive lead spurred him to victory.
Here's a look at the rest of the ring winners from the Baltimore stop:
| Event | Winner | Prize |
|---|---|---|
| $365 Monster Stack | Nick Verderamo | $27,126 |
| $365 Semi-Turbo | Dennis Tsai | $20,950 |
| $365 PLO | John Richards | $11,589 |
| $365 Reentry | Cory Smith | $40,414 |
| $365 NLHE | Roland Israelashvili | $13,364 |
| $365 Six-Max | George Rowe | $15,348 |
| $580 NLHE | Trevor Foley | $20,789 |
| $365 Turbo | Robert Hankins | $11,759 |
| $365 Turbo | Daniel Pearlman | $13,689 |
| $365 NLHE | Nikhil Kumar | $14,500 |
| $365 Turbo | Ronald McDonald | $14,429 |
Photo courtesy of WSOP
