Dan Lowery Wins WSOP Circuit Choctaw Main Event for $258,784

November 15, 2017

Dan Lowery continued a banner year on the World Series of Poker Circuit with a win in the $1,675 WSOPC Choctaw Main Event for $258,784, one of the largest prizes claimed on the Circuit this year. Lowery got through a field of 908 entries to do so, winning his sixth Circuit ring in the process.

It's just the latest result for Lowery, already best-known in poker for his Circuit success, that continues a tremendous run in 2017. He finished second at the first-ever Hard Rock Tulsa Main Event for over $100K. Then, he claimed his fifth ring and had a second-place finish en route to Casino Champion honors at Harvey's Lake Tahoe just last month.

"It’s the biggest year I’ve ever had," Lowery told tournament reporters. "It’s the biggest year I could dream of.”

Official Final Table Results

The 908 entries in the event created a hefty prize pool of nearly $1.4 million. Some of the 99 players who got a cut of that included Circuit standouts Marshall White, Jonathan Hilton, Maurice Hawkins, Aaron Massey and Kurt Jewell, as well as major titleholders Andy Hwang, Mike Cordell and Prince Gaspard.

According to the live updates, Lowery came into the final day with one of the bigger stacks and then leaped to the top of the counts in the first big half of the day, when he opened with A♠Q♠ and got a slew of callers before Srinivasa Vadlamudi three-bet in the blinds. Lowery and Vadlamudi got stacks in and Lowery managed to make the nut flush against K♣K♦ to drag a huge pot and take the lead into the final table.

Final Table Action

At the final table, Lowery was able to build from 4 million to about 6 million by mostly winning small and medium pots.

In the meantime, Walter Rodriguez scored early eliminations, including busting tournament monster Kevin Eyster. Eyster ran into some bad luck on the final day, losing to a three-outer in an all-in pot early and then later flopping a set that got cracked by a gutshot. He ran king-queen into ace-queen for the last of it to result in an eighth-place finish.

Start-of-day leader "Minnesota" Jon Hanner also got very little going on the last day. He found himself all in for less than 10 big blinds and desperately needing an ace with A♣4♠ against Lowery's K♠K♦. An ace did arrive on the flop but it came with a king as well, so Hanner headed to payouts to collect sixth-place money.

Mason Vieth got all of his chips in with a slight lead in a battle of the blinds with A♥8♦ against the K♦Q♥ of Jared Hemingway. Unfortunately for Vieth, a K♣9♥4♦ flop left him drawing thin and he was unable to catch anything. He couldn't run up the single ante chip he had left and busted fifth.

It would take nearly 50 hands for the next player to go down. Finally, Hemingway got in a flip when he jammed 14 big blinds over some limps with Q♥J♠ and open-limper Rodriguez called with 2♥2♦. The drama was short-lived as Rodriguez flopped a boat on 4♠4♦2♠ and Hemingway busted in fourth place. That surged Rodriguez into a decent lead with over 11 million at 50,000/100,000/10,000.

Rodriguez appeared to be in command as he continued to chip up, holding more than two-thirds of the chips three-handed with Lowery and Nick Schwarmann in his dust.

Lowery, though, eliminated Schwarmann with A♠Q♣ against A♦10♥ all in preflop to get to 6 million at 60,000/120,000/20,000 and give himself some solid footing going heads up against Rodriguez and his 12 million or so.

That match would prove to be a long one, lasting about 60 hands. Lowery battled back to about even when a key hand took place that started with Lowery opening preflop to 300,000 and Rodriguez three-betting to 800,000. The board was 10♦7♥5♦8♣ after they both checked, and Rodriguez bet 915,000 and Lowery called. Rodriguez bet one million on the 10♠ river and Lowery made it 2.2 million. Rodriguez clicked back to 3.4 million and Lowery called with K♦10♥, winning the showdown with trips.

That gave Lowery a decisive lead and he wouldn't let it slip away. He hammered Rodriguez down to just over 10 big blinds and then got lucky with A♠7♣ against 10♠10♥ to seal the win.

"A lot of people say that I’m hard to play against," Lowery said. "It’s not because I play great. It’s because I play a little unorthodox at times. It doesn’t matter to me.

"I’m getting the results and as long as I’m feeding these babies, that’s all that matters to me.”

Here's a look at all of the ring winners from the Choctaw stop:

_{Photo courtesy of WSOP}

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