The Bicycle Casino in Los Angeles is currently sizzling with poker action as the 2017/18 World Series of Poker Circuit is underway. Gold ring hunters have already started pursuing a gold piece of WSOP Circuit jewelry. The first gold ring has already found its owner and that is Williams Collins. He emerged victorious in Event #1: $365 No-Limit Hold’em Bounty to collect his first-ever gold ring and a first-place prize of $7,000. Currently, Event #2: $365 No-Limit Hold’em Monster Stack is underway, looking for the next ring owner. At this moment, the American poker player Mario Martinez seems to be in pole position to snare the lion’s share of the prize pool and a trophy.
Similar to the other such Monster Stack events on the WSOP Circuit schedule, the current event is a tournament that offers to the winner a gold ring and the biggest chunk of the prize pool. Following the well-established tradition from the previous years, the Monster Stack re-entry tournament attracted a packed field of 1,150 players, who generated a prize pool of $401,100.
Day 2 of the tournament kicked off with 168 survivors, who were left out of an initial field of 1,117 entries. There were 33 more players, who registered for the tournament at the start of Day 2. Hence, the number of players to cross swords in Day 2 amounted to 201. The money bubble burst sometime during Day 2 of the tournament. The top 135 finishers received a portion of the prize money, securing a minimum cash of $600.
Mario Martinez Vies WSOP Circuit Gold Ring
The poker race was fierce and only 17 players made it to the start of the final Day 3 of the poker contention. They are to claim the $71,195 first-place prize and the fabled gold ring. Here, it is interesting to mention that the ring winner from the previous event William Collins together with some other poker notables and bracelet winners could not survive during Day 2 of the tournament for long, but managed to finish in the money list.
The remaining players will return today at noon to determine the name of the winner. Mario Martinez leads the way by a narrow margin. He will bring a stack of 3,360,000 in chips, while his nearest rival Necip Iscan will enter the poker contention with 3,350,000 in chips. In fact, Iscan let the chip lead slip through his fingers by a few antes, but poker is a game of luck and skills, so nothing can be determined before the final hand is dealt on the table. Soon, it will become clear who is the fortunate player to bring home a jaw-dropping prize and a WSOP-branded trophy.
