Two days after Dan Lowery came to within one ring of his record, Ari Engel took down an online World Series of Poker Circuit (WSOPC) event for his 17th career title.
In doing so, the Canadian poker superstar gave himself a bit of separation from the three players tied for second place with 15 rings chasing his record — Lowery, Maurice Hawkins, and Josh Reichard.
Lowery won a live event at Harrah’s Cherokee in North Carolina on Thursday, taking down the $400 Monster Stack for $148,416 while beating out 3,577 entrants. The Arkansas sawmill owner has now won five Circuit rings in the past 13 months.
Engel Gets Some Separation
Engel entered WSOPC Michigan Event #11: $500 No-Limit Hold’em Big 500 8-Max on Saturday, and due to busting twice he represented three of the 76 total entrants in the rebuy tournament.
Following his Saturday night win for $9,778, a humble Engel tweeted out that the event had “only 48 unique players.” But despite the small field size, it doesn’t take away from the fact that he now has a bit of separation on the all-time WSOPC leaderboard.
Engel defeated “rush783” heads up to take down his 17th ring, while the runner up received $6,388. Kevin “Mcleskey” Mcleskey finished in third place for $4,170. World Series of Poker (WSOP) bracelet winner Ryan “MagicJohnson” Hiller also reached the final table, taking sixth place for $1,703.
WSOPC Michigan Event #11 Final Table Results
| PLACE | PLAYER | PRIZE (IN USD) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ari “FacebookFan” Engel | $9,778 | |
| 2 | “rush783” | $6,388 | |
| 3 | Kevin “Mcleskey” Mcleskey | $4,170 | |
| 4 | “1WINATATIME” | $3,034 | |
| 5 | Nicolai “CordGarcia” Morris | $2,235 | |
| 6 | Ryan “MagicJohnson” Hiller | $1,703 | |
| 7 | “Option3” | $1,330 | |
| 8 | “IrishJabroni” | $1,047 |
World Series of Poker Circuit Ring Race Heating Up
The World Series of Poker Circuit leaderboard race has become quite an entertaining battle the past year. It started with Hawkins setting the record (15) in May, only to be upstaged by Engel, who won four Circuit rings between July and October to become the first to 16.
Lowery and Reichard would make the race to the top even more interesting, with Lowery claiming his 14th ring in August and then 15th last week, while Reichard captured his 15th ring in November. Either Engel, who is also a three-time bracelet winner, will win his 18th ring and begin to move even further ahead of the competition, or one (or more) of the three players tied for second place will catch up.
Or, perhaps, someone who wasn’t even mentioned in this article will go on a heater in 2024 and overtake them all.