The World Series of Poker Circuit stopped recently in St. Louis to host an event at the Harrah’s Casino. The main event of the stop was a $5,000 no limit hold’em championship event and 129 players competed. The total prize pool was worth just over $625,000 and it was Jeff Roper who earned the first place finish.
When final table play began the first to go would be Michael Sortino who went all in on the first hand of play. Sortino held A-J suited diamonds and would be called by Gary Lambert who held A-Q off suit. The board ran out A-Q-4-6-3 and Sortino would be eliminated in ninth place.
Gary Bolden would now be the short stack at the table so he would decide to move all in next with pocket twos. Jeff Roper would call with pocket queens and the board would not help either player so Roper would win the hand and Bolden would go home in eighth place.
Gregory Headrick would go out next in seventh when he moved all in with pocket tens and was called by Lambert who held K-7 off suit. The board ran out Q-8-3-2-K and Headrick would be eliminated. Next would be Joel Casper going all in with pocket aces. Roper would call with pocket jacks and he would win the hand when a third jack showed up on the board. Casper would be eliminated in sixth place.
Jordan Portell would go home in fifth after going up against Lambert who got a flush. Portell going home left Matt Schwarmann as the short stack. He then moved all in with A-6 and was called by Jason Mo who held A-7. Mo won the hand and Schwarmann was eliminated in fourth place.
Once three handed play began it was between Roper, Mo and Gary Lambert. Roper held a significant lead with just over one million in chips. Mo was behind him with 607,000 and Lambert was trailing with almost 300,000.
Lambert would quickly be eliminated since he held the shorter stack and this would leave Roper and Mo in heads up play. They would take a dinner break before returning to finish the tournament. Mo would work hard when play resumed and he would even up the chip counts and then take a slight lead for at bit. But Roper would soon gain back the lead and have a 2 to 1 chip advantage.
The final hand would begin when Mo raised 67,000 preflop. Roper reraised to 175,000 and Mo reraised all in. Roper made the call and then they showed their cards. Mo held A-Q off suit and Roper held pocket Aces. The board gave nothing to either player so Roper’s pocket aces gave him the win.
Roper not only won the nice first place prize of $170,814 but he also earned a $10,000 World Series of Poker Main Event Seat for the 2010 event.
Final Results:
1: Jeff Roper — $170,814 + $10,000 2010 WSOP ME Seat
2: Jason Mo — $122,502
3: Gary Lambert — $81,710
4: Matthew Schwarmann — $58,373
5: Jordan Portell — $46,673
6: Joel Casper — $35,036
7: Gregory Headrick — $23,337
8: Gary Bolden — $18,957
9: Michael Sortino — $16,017