The Bicycle Hotel & Casino in Los Angeles, California kindly plays host to the premier World Series of Poker Circuit for yet another year. The poker festival commenced on 1st December and it is to run all the way through 12th December. The multiple ring events on the WSOP’s schedule attracted the attention of poker players from all over the world, who headed to the WSOP latest stop to try their luck. Although the festival has reached its halfway point, there are still a number of gold rings and eye-popping prices up for grabs.
Ryan Van Sanford is the latest poker heavyweight, who is celebrating gold ring event victory. The player topped a field of 162 fellow contenders, who created a prize pool of $48,600. The top 18 finishers left the poker contention with a portion of the money. The minimum payout amounted to $650. Needless to say, all the runners were hoping for the first-place prize money and the piece of WSOP jewelry.
The Canadian Darren Healy were among the poker notables, who was forced to make their way to the payout desk with a consolation prize of $780. The player ducked out in 14th place to leave a pack of American poker players to struggle for the lion’s share of the money pot.
By the time the field was trimmed to just 3 players, Tim Tang, Behzad Javadzadeh and Ryan Van Sanford were among the survivors. Tim Tang’s hopes for a WSOP Circuit gold ring hit the rail, but he collected a payout of $5,835 for his deep run into the tournament.
Ryan Van Sanford and Behzad Javadzadeh were the players to cross swords in a heads-up duel. The two-handed battle was packed with action, but it was Sanford to prevail over his opponent. Javadzadeh scooped a second-place payout of $8,110.
Additional Information about the Winner
Ryan Van Sanford’s latest accomplishment cemented his reputation among the poker community as a strong competitor. Despite his tender age of 24, the player has accumulated winnings of $1,460,366. Apart from his enviable bankroll, the young Sanford has already 2 WSOP Circuit gold rings in his collection of trophies. He captured his first WSOP Circuit trophy when he was just 18 years old. He defeated a packed field of 288 players to collect $20,732 and his first career ring in a $365 No-limit Hold’em tournament in Choctaw.
In a post-victory interview, Sanford shared that his first trophy is a very special piece of item for him. He added that his poker career was marked by an extremely modest start, as none of his relatives was a poker player, which means that he needed to accomplish his poker skills on his own.
