A WSOP.com player in Michigan only had to outlast 14 players to win a coveted WSOP Gold Ring.
This unusual occurrence happened during the WSOP MI Online Circuit Series opening event — a $320 buy-in No-Limit Hold 'em tournament sporting a $25,000 guaranteed prize money.
Online circuit events are considered quite prestigious as they offer the winners an official WSOP gold ring on top of the first-place prize and an entry to the esteemed Tournament of Champions. These events usually attract hundreds and thousands of players.
But for whatever reason, the event only managed to draw 15 players who further rebought five times. This meant that the tournament covered just 24% of the guarantees, leading to a massive overlay of $19,000 in a $25,000 value tournament.
Those who participated in the event had to compete with over a dozen players, which is relatively unheard of for a WSOP-branded event.
After nearly four hours of play, a player under the screenname “AceHanlon” took down the event, adding $12,500 to his bankroll and the much-sought-after gold ring.
“[Congrats] to AceHanlon for the easiest ring win in WSOP history,” commented Michael Setera, a five-time WSOP Circuit Champion, on Twitter.
The player also earned an entry into the Tournament of Champions slated to take place in the upcoming WSOP 2023 live series. Meanwhile, the 2nd and 3rd places took home $7500 and $5000 respectively.
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Technical Reasons May Have Caused Peculiar Turnout
What caused such a low turnout is unknown, but initial reports on the Discord channel and social media indicated a problem with many players facing login issues.
Per player reports, the issue was on both WSOP MI & WSOP PA platforms — which are powered by 888poker’s next-gen software Poker 8. The same event on the Pennsylvania client had to be canceled. No issue was reported on the shared liquidity network spanning New Jersey and Nevada.
Perhaps the login issues or some other technical caused such a low turnout, making it the smallest field for a WSOP Circuit event. Coincidentally, the PokerStars US network was also impacted last night, prompting speculations that the US online poker rooms were hit by Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks.
Luckily for those who participated, the operator did not cancel the event, and the guaranteed prize pool was still paid out in full. The remaining events are still scheduled, including the Mystery Bounty event running today for a buy-in of $100 — the lowest for a WSOP Circuit event.
Across the series, more than $350,000 is guaranteed over a 12-day schedule featuring a dozen ring events. The WSOP PA client guarantees the same amount, while the shared network at WSOP NJ & WSOP NV boasts more than $1.1 million. The series across the three networks runs until May 21.
The series is also the last Online Circuit series for the 2022-2023 season. This means it is the final opportunity for players to qualify for the esteemed Freeroll Tournament of Champions promising $1 million.
The Tournament of Champions is scheduled to run from May 31 to June 2. The event is open only to those that have won a WSOP Circuit ring either live or online between July 20, 2022, and May 22, 2023. Winners from the WSOP 2022 Online bracelet series and WSOP Europe events are also eligible to participate in the event.
