$1,700 Main Event Day 1b | 2020 World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas

02-23-2020 11:58 UTC-7

Bell Set to Ring For Busy Day 1b of the WSOPC Rio Las Vegas Main Event

Jeff McMillan

WSOPC Circuit Logo

It is time for Day 1b the Main Event of the WSOP Circuit Rio Las Vegas to get underway. Play gets started at 1 p.m. local time. Players get a 30,000 starting stack for a $1,700 entry. If eliminated, players are allowed to re-enter once per flight.

Yesterday, Day 1a attracted a total of 290 entries came into the ring and after the 15 level count was given by the tournament, 52 were left standing with Michael Stein taking the Day 1a chip leader belt home with a stack of 387,000. Leo Worthington-Leese was the next closest contender with 354,000.

That means some 248 were ko’ed before the bell. But their dreams of a Circuit Ring are not slayed as they will have a chance at a rematch today, as they can re-enter long with any newcomers who have their eyes set on a deep run. Day 1b is expected to draw a larger field and be a more busy day of action.

Like Day 1a, Day 1b will consist of 15 levels, each being 40-minutes in length. There will be a 15-minute break every three levels (two hours) with an extended dinner break after level 9 (roughly 7:30 p.m.).

PokerNews will provide you with all of the Day 1b action; any notable hands, players and chip count updates. As well as get you caught up on the ring winners earlier at the WSOP Circuit Rio Las Vegas.

02-23-2020 14:23 UTC-7

Dream Come True for Brandon Rios w/ Win in Event #3: $600 No-Limit Hold’em

MartianNews

Level 1 : 100/100, 0 ante

PokerNews is in town to live report both the $1,700 Main Event and $2,200 High Roller here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas, but those are just three of the gold ring events that will have played out by the end of the series.

In Event #3: $600 No-Limit Hold’em, 264 runners created a $87,120 prize pool that was paid out to the top 40 spots including Dan O’Brien (3rd - $13,294), Josh Suyat (8th - $3,328), Gerald Cunniff (10th - $2,185), Ryan Awwad (22nd - $1,293), Michael Lipscomb (24th - $1,293), and Shawn Sparks (40th - $965).

In the end, 32-year-old director of surveillance Brandon Rios bested Greg Armand in heads-up play to win the $29,694 top prize and his first gold ring.

“I’m super excited, it has been a lifetime goal to win a WSOP event, so I ‘m super happy,” Rios said after his victory. “I got into poker when I was a sophomore in high school. I was on the bus going back from a baseball game and my buddy asked me if I wanted to play poker, and at first I laughed at him and said, are you freakin’ forty years old, but we went back to his house and played and after that I was hooked.”

He added: “This is going to sound crazy, but even though I was the short stack five-handed I felt like I had a good chance of winning it. I was short stacked for most of the day, but I just tried to stay focused and keep playing, and I came through at the end, I guess.”

“As corny as it sounds, this is one of the best days of my life. This has been one of my lifetime goals, and now the bracelet is next.”

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Hometown	Prize
1	Brandon Rios	Las Vegas, Nevada	$29,694
2	Gregory Armand	Santa Barbara, California	$18,514
3	David O'Brien	Raleigh, North Carolina	$13,294
4	James Duke	Houston, Texas	$9,716
5	Jason Kagawa	N/A	$7,230
6	Bruce Russell	Los Angeles, California	$5,479
7	Dustin Lee	Las Vegas, Nevada	$4,230
8	Joshua Suyat	Kahului, Hawaii	$3,328
9	Jason Tang	El Cajon, California	$2,670

Tags: Brandon Rios Bruce Russell David O'Brien Dustin Lee Gerald Cunniff Gregory Armand James Duke Jason Tang Joshua Suyat Michael Lipscomb Ryan Awwad Shawn Sparks

02-23-2020 15:04 UTC-7

Richard Munro Victorious in Event #4: $250 Seniors Event

MartianNews

Level 2 : 100/100, 100 ante

PokerNews is in town to live report both the $1,700 Main Event and $2,200 High Roller here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas, but those are just three of the gold ring events that will have played out by the end of the series.

In Event #4: $250 Seniors Event, 298 runners created a $59,600 prize pool that was paid out to the top 45 players including Anthony Blanda (3rd - $5,741), Charles Moore (7th - $1,855), Tony Birney (12th - $954), David Plastik (16th - $672), Shawn Sparks (29th - $421), David Bates (37th - $368), Kurt Jandron (40th - $368), and Lee Troy (45th - $368).

In the end, Richard Munro of Bell Canyon, California bested Avraham Maman in heads-up play to win the title for $12,868 and a gold ring.

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Hometown	Prize
1	Richard Munro	Bell Canyon, California	$12,868
2	Avraham Maman	N/A	$5,741
3	Anthony Blanda	Las Vegas, Nevada	$5,741
4	Paul Greenwood	Flagstaff, Arizona	$4,220
5	Steven Stolzmann	N/A	$3,154
6	Uyen Tran	Round Rock, Texas	$2,398
7	Charles Moore	Las Vegas, Nevada	$1,855
8	John Hom	San Rafael, California	$1,460
9	Michael Hack	Henderson, Nevada	$1,170

Tags: Anthony Blanda Charles Moore David Plastik John Hom Michael Hack Richard Munro Shawn Sparks Tony Birney

02-23-2020 15:10 UTC-7

A Round With the Defending Champ

Jeff McMillan

Level 2 : 100/100, 100 ante

Last year's Rio Las Vegas WSOP Circuit Main Event champion Viet Vo has entered the field early today and was involved in some action after an orbit around the table at what was a six-handed table.

Hand 1: From the button, Vo raised to 300. Both blinds defended and came along. The flop came . Vo continued with a bet of 500 and both his opponents folded.

Hand 2: Folded preflop

Hand 3: Folded preflop

Hand 4: From the big blind, Vo three-bet to 1,600 over the button's raise to 700. The button called. The flop came . Vo bet 1,100 and his opponent called.

The turn was the both players checked.

The river was the . Vo checked and his opponent bet 2,200. Vo thought for about ten seconds and called after re-checking his cards. His opponent showed the which Vo had beat with ace high, turning over the and taking the pot.

Hand 5: Vo raised to 300 from the small blind. The big blind called. The flop came . Action went check-check. The turn was the . Check-check again. The river was the . Vo bet 1,200 and his opponent folded swiftly.

Player	Chips	Progress
Viet Vo	36,000

Tags: Viet Vo

02-23-2020 15:48 UTC-7

Battle-Rapper Peter Morris Captures 2nd Gold Ring Exactly One Year After First

MartianNews

Level 3 : 100/200, 200 ante

PokerNews is in town to live report both the $1,700 Main Event and $2,200 High Roller here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas, but those are just three of the gold ring events that will have played out by the end of the series.

In Event #5: $400 No-Limit Hold’em 8-Handed, 151 entrants created a $49,830 prize pool that was paid out amongst the top 23 players including Brett Murray (6th - $2,123), Mirko Marich (12th - $874), Kfir Nahum (14th - $757), Sam Cosby (16th - $678), Jasthi Kumar (20th - $628), and Sergio Vargas (23rd - $604).

Coming out on top to capture a $13,214 top prize and his second career gold ring was battle-rapper Peter Morris, who won his first gold ring exactly one year prior in the WSOPC Rio $400 NLH 6-Handed Event.

“Unbelievable. I obviously wanted to play another 6-Max event because that’s what I won last year, but when I saw that it wasn’t on the schedule and that this event replaced it on the exact same day – I thought it was a must play,” Morris said. “When we were on the bubble I only had seven big blinds, but I ended up baging 180,000 and never looked back.”

He added: “I feel like I have a pretty good gauge on being able to read people and figure out what they are capable of and how they withstand pressure, which is very similar to what I do on stage. When I sit down at a table, I’m aware of who I will be able to push around. But the biggest advantage is that, as soon as people realize that I’m a rapper, all credibility goes out the window and people think I’m a fish. I love it because that gives me so much more action than I should, and I use that to my advantage.”

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Hometown	Prize
1	Peter Morris	Las Vegas, Nevada	$13,214
2	Kevin Sherrill	Conover, North Carolina	$8,162
3	Cristhian Guillen	N/A	$5,599
4	Paul Schuman	Austin, Texas	$3,944
5	Jarrod Cipresse	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	$2,854
6	Brett Murray	Mississauga, Ontario, Canada	$2,123
7	John Zentner	Las Vegas, Nevada	$1,626
8	Pedro Ingles	Cohutta, Georgia	$1,282
9	Robert Gunstrom	N/A	$1,042

Tags: Brett Murray Jarrod Cipresse Jasthi Kumar John Zentner Kevin Sherrill Kfir Nahum Paul Schuman Peter Morris Sam Cosby

02-23-2020 17:25 UTC-7

Gregory Hughes Wins Event #6: $400 NLH Double Stack Turbo

MartianNews

Level 5 : 200/300, 300 ante

PokerNews is in town to live report both the $1,700 Main Event and $2,200 High Roller here at the World Series of Poker Circuit Rio Las Vegas, but those are just three of the gold ring events that will have played out by the end of the series.

In Event #6: $400 NLH Double Stack Turbo, 238 runners offered up a $78,540 prize pool that was paid out to the top 36 players. Among those to cash were Brett Murray (3rd - $7,936), Michael Rossitto (7th - $2,489), Dylan Thomassie (9th - $1,574), Max Pescatori (15th - $1,084), Darren Rabinowitz (19th - $816), and Brian Reinert (31st - $615).

Coming out on top was Gregory Hughes, who captured a $18,015 first-place prize and his first gold ring.

“It feels really good, and it feels especially good being as low in chips as I was and being able to come back, that feels great,” Hughes said after the win.

According to WSOP officials, the one-day turbo event started at noon and got down to a final table after seven hours of poker action.

“When we had three tables I was down to 8000 chips, but I tripled, then doubled and just rolled from there. It was almost like it was meant to be,” Hughes explained. “I have been playing poker for a while but it has never been the only thing I do. Then the business I worked at got sold, so I had an opportunity to take some time off for three or four months to play poker, and three months later I got a ring.”

Final Table Results

Place	Player	Hometown	Prize
1	Gregory Hughes	Chandler, Arizona	$18,015
2	Julio Novo	Tampa, Florida	$11,128
3	Brett Murray	Mississauga, Ontario, Canada	$7,936
4	John Hom	San Rafael, California	$5,767
5	Koma Fenton	Fairbanks, Alaska	$4,273
6	Gregory Armand	Santa Barbara, California	$3,229
7	Michael Rossitto	Brooklyn, New York	$2,489
8	Benjamin Palmer	N/A	$1,959
9	Dylan Thomassie	Champaign, Illinois	$1,574

Tags: Benjamin Palmer Brett Murray Brian Reinert Darren Rabinowitz Dylan Thomassie Gregory Armand Gregory Hughes John Hom Julio Novo Koma Fenton Max Pescatori Michael Rossitto

02-23-2020 20:20 UTC-7

Massive Hand Swells Baldwin's Stack

Jeff McMillan

Level 9 : 400/800, 800 ante

Action was picked up on the river and was retold.

Jesse Shotwell raised to 1,800 and found three callers including Eric Baldwin.

The flop came . Shotwell bet 3,000 and Baldwin called while the other two players folded.

The turn was the . Shotwell then checked it over to Baldwin who bet 4,000. Shotwell raised to 9,000 and Baldwin called.

The river was the . Shotwell bet 14,000. Baldwin collected his chips and slid forward a stack of chips for a bet of 62,000 which was for nearly all of Shotwell's chips who went into the tank. After about 30 seconds he found a call.

He saw the horrible news as Baldwin tabled the for the full boat which coolered the of Shotwell as he was left with very few chips while Baldwin shot up the charts.

Player	Chips	Progress
Eric Baldwin	185,000 92,000	92,000

Jesse Shotwell	6,000 -54,000	-54,000

Tags: Eric Baldwin Jesse Shotwell

02-23-2020 22:02 UTC-7

Kessler Takes an Exit

MartianNews

Level 11 : 600/1,200, 1,200 ante

Action folded to Allen Kessler in the small blind who looked down at one ace and elected two put his 12 blinds into the middle. Johnathan Wong called and the two tabled their hands.

Wong turned over ace-jack and was dominated when Kessler tabled his ace-king of spades. The flop rolled out with a johnnie and the rest of the board came down clean, sending the pot to Wong and Kessler took an exit.

Player	Chips	Progress
Johnathan Wong	80,000 -6,000	-6,000
Allen Kessler	Busted

Tags: Allen Kessler Johnathan Wong

02-24-2020 00:04 UTC-7

Piccioli Takes Down a Monster

MartianNews

Level 13 : 1,000/2,000, 2,000 ante

The flop read and there was about 40,000 in the pot when Bryan Piccioli found his 130,000 stack head into the middle. His opponent had their 120,000 stack pushed in and the two tabled their cards.

Opponent:
Bryan Piccioli:

The turn and river cemented the pot for Piccioli as he sent his opponent packing late in the day.

Player	Chips	Progress
Bryan Piccioli	290,000

Tags: Bryan Piccioli

02-24-2020 01:10 UTC-7

Olisar Collects with Rockets

MartianNews

Level 15 : 1,500/3,000, 3,000 ante

Jordan Cristos opened to 9,000 and two players called. Ryan Olisar raised to 30,000 and all his opponents except one. That player shoved their stack into the middle for more than enough to cover Olisar who snap-called for his 155,500 stack.

Ryan Olisar:
Opponent:

The board ran out and Olisar's aces held on for the pot, doubling late in the day.

Player	Chips	Progress
Ryan Olisar	340,000 184,000	184,000

Tags: Jordan Cristos Ryan Olisar